


The Neverlands

by Isas_Identitty



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Canon-Typical Violence, Crazy Weather, F/M, Flirting, Fluff, Found Family, Friends to Lovers, Gay Keith (Voltron), Gen, Group Hugs, Jealous Lance (Voltron), Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Light Angst, M/M, Mentions of Blood, Monsters, Mutual Pining, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pining, Skeletons, Sleepy Cuddles, Slow Burn, The world got fucked up by humans, Weapons, because i can't help myself
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-12
Updated: 2020-02-08
Packaged: 2021-02-24 21:34:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 28,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22164793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Isas_Identitty/pseuds/Isas_Identitty
Summary: The word has been nothing but a desolate place filled with ruins and vicious monsters since the great war ended in a sour note decades ago, and all humanity wants is to keep on pushing and living as normally as it can despite the crisis they find themselves in.Despite this, Keith has spent the last few years risking his life, traveling from settlement from settlement and exploring any deserted place, hopelessly continuing in the search of something no one knows.After meeting Lance and the kind people of his little town, he finds it hard to leave a place for the first time, causing a lot of second thoughts just as he's about to leave. Thankfully, they finally find a clue guiding them towards the right path to Keith's goal.But maybe, just maybe, he can learn to find a little joy and hope between it all too.
Relationships: Allura & Lance (Voltron), Hunk/Pidge (Voltron), Keith & Shiro (Voltron), Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 11
Kudos: 31





	1. The Wall

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone! this is the first time i write a multi-chaptered fic and actually intend to write it and upload it.  
> This fic came as an idea to me when thinking about all the things i don't know anything about, or experiences, and wondering to myself "what ARE things i am familiar with?" and not to like, brag or anything, but sadly i'm familiar with hopelessness, and hunger, and living under a harsh dictatorship that does nothing but to make everything worse.  
> So yeah, this is a personal fic and hit's close to home for me, and I will be shitting on a lot of things that are frustrating to me, and that I have experienced, but to be honest, i don't want to make it angsty, or sad. I want to make it hopeful, and fluffy, and about people finding each other and learning to push through the difficulties, and inspiring each other, and deciding to take no more bullshit. Because that's also something that I need for myself.  
> So yeah, even if not many people read this, I hope the ones who do enjoy it and feel that little bit of hope it is so hard to find!

Keith marked the map with a big red X right beside where it used to be a small interrogation sign and a line encircling an entire zone on the map, groaning in frustration.

Another place, another search and another disappointment. It all felt fruitless for him by now but he had to go on no matter what, he couldn't give up.

It was already time to move on to the next place and start over.

He looked up into the night sky and stared at the moon. A great chunk of it was gone but it was still shining bright in the sky alongside the stars, giving them a good visibility during the night.

Ge got closer to the railing, and looking down outside the wall he wondered wherever or not that was a good thing, seeing the shadowy shapes of the monsters running outside, restless and waiting.

Waiting for him to slip up and fall, to make any mistake, to find a weakness in the big wall separating the little town and all the people living inside and slip through it to destroy everything to the ground.

Even from here he could see their soulless white eyes shining out in the distance, their rotten, dry black skin sticking to their bony bodies right out of a nightmare as they prowled meters away around the wall, hiding in the shadows.

It would be a lie to say he's never had to fight against one, that he has never been face to face with their razor-sharp teeth, that he has never stared at the void in their eyes and seen the way the void looked back at him--

"There you are!" He heard a chipper voice say. "I knew you'd be here _brooding_." Keith turned around with a scowl, finding the owner of the voice climbing up the stairs from the trap door on the floor.

"Lance." Keith frowned, looking at the boy from head to toe, covered in various layers of shirts, sweaters and sweatpants, together with a blue blanket draped over his shoulders and a very stupid-looking purple hat that covered his ears and had little fluffy balls hanging from the top of his head.

"You look stupid." He grumbled, eyeing the cup filled with what seemed to be hot chocolate on Lance's hands.

"I prefer _'stupid'_ to _'cold'_ , thank you." He sniffed, nose red, and raised his cup. "Want some?"

"Nah." He took a flask out of his jacket and shook it with a little smirk. “Already got this to warm me up."

"Ooh, share a bit?" He shook his cup towards Keith, who looked taken a back.

"Uhh, I don't think this goes well with chocolate." He frowned, looking between his flask and Lance's cup.

Lance scoffed. "Please, nothing we have can go well with chocolate. We haven't had any in ages." He rolled his eyes and pushed his cup closer.

Keith stared at him for a moment, raising a skeptic eyebrow before starting to uncap the flask.

"Alright, just don't blame me later for ruining your first cup of hot chocolate in ages." He sighed, taking Lance's cup and putting on a bit of his alcohol on it before giving it back and walking away, putting the cap back on his flask.

"Yes, yes. Thanks mullet." Lance dismissed, giddy smile on his face as he took the cup and started mixing the drink with his pinky finger.

Keith sat down against the wall, looking towards the outside's direction before his eyes irremediably swayed and stared at Lance for a moment.

He briefly wondered what Lance was doing here. With him. It's something that's been happening a lot lately, throughout the entire month to be exact.

See, Keith always had trouble sleeping the day before a run, or a mission, or whatever the place he's staying at calls it. It was difficult not to feel anxious of going to the outside and having to confront those horrible monsters again and again for supplies and scavenging any piece of useful thing they could find. He had accepted this fact a long time ago, so he likes to spend the night at the highest place he finds wherever he's at, and watching over the wall. Patrolling for any weakness the monsters might find. If he's going to not sleep and do nothing, he might as well do something useful after all.

The thing is, after he arrived at this little settlement and met Lance over a month ago, he's been accompanying him almost every night before a run, staying awake by his side.

Sometimes Lance annoys him into talking all through the night, sometimes they spend the entire night in content silence; but as the reason why, he doesn't know. He never asked, and Lance never explained himself.

He used to think maybe it was because the others had asked him to keep an eye on Keith, but now he's not so sure. Or maybe, it was all just wishful thinking.

“Hmm… it actually doesn't taste that bad.” He got snapped out of his thoughts by Lance's surprised voice. He looked up to see Lance walking up to him and sitting on the floor right beside him with a groan.

"You must be really desperate then." Keith rolled his eyes. "Or just hungry. Definitely hungry." He teased, but Lance didn't seem to be paying much attention to him.

“Hey dude, hold this for me.” Lance suddenly shoved his cup into Keith’s hands.

“Hey, watch out!” Keith screeched, trying not to let the hot chocolate spill all over his shirt.

“Here you go.” Lance shoved the hat he was wearing onto Keith’s head.

“What the fuck?” Keith said.

Before he could rip that stupid hat off his head, Lance accommodated the blanket, raising one side enough to drop it over Keith’s shoulders. “Come on, cuddle up.”

 _“What the fuck?”_ Keith said, with more feeling.

“You’re driving me crazy dude, only wearing a jacket over your stupid shirt knowing full well how cold it gets during the night; don’t you know how cold it gets now!? It’s like you’re asking to get sick!” Lance started to reprimand him. “Now cuddle up before I change my mind!”

“What!” Keith screeched again.

“I’m freezing here!” Lance pointed out, raising his eyebrows in exasperation.

How the heck did he even felt cold wearing that many layers, Keith will never know.

Choosing better than to fight Lance about it, he moved closer to him and arranged the blanket to sit more comfortably around his shoulders, closing it tight around them so the cold wouldn’t get in.

"Just so you know, I'm wearing a sweater under the jacket." Keith grumbled under his breath.

"Yeah yeah. Whatever helps you sleep at night, bad boy." Lance rolled his eyes, pushing himself even closer.

Against his own will, Keith felt his own body relaxing as he was enveloped with warmth, basically melting against Lance's side. He tried not to think too much about the way the pressure he felt from Lance’s arm against his own arm felt like burning against his skin, or the way their knees knocked against each other and just stayed there. Stuck together. Their entire bodies were doing it. _Touching,_ that is _._ And his mind was reeling over this fact.

He briefly wondered when was the last time he was so close to another human being. Definitely too long ago.

“See? Much better isn’t it, hot stuff?” Lance smiled, his eyes looking strangely sparkly under the moonlight and making Keith suddenly feel like he couldn’t stand to look at them anymore, redirecting his eyes back down to the floor.

Keith made a non-committal grunt, his tongue suddenly too heavy.

Lance took the cup back from his hands. “Thanks.” His voice was very close to his ear, making Keith suddenly conscious of how close they were.

He answered with another grumble.

They stayed sitting down in silence like that for a while, Lance drinking his spiked hot chocolate while complaining under his breath about the lack of sugar, and Keith silently looking at the floor in silence. He could see his own breath coming out of his nose from the cold, and realized he missed the warmth the cup had left on his fingertips.

As time went on Keith started to get more and more anxious about all the small talk, his shoulders getting tense again in expectation. He stole some looks towards Lance from time to time, waiting for it.

He had announced earlier that day how he was going to go away the next day towards his next destination, but no one took the news very well.

The captain of the exploration unit didn't take long to get him alone and away from everyone else and asked him to think this decision through; that he could do so much good on their little settlement if he stayed, that he was one of the most brilliant people they’ve ever had.

He promptly said he had his own reasons, and that they had nothing to do with his own decisions, efficiently cutting the conversation off before walking away.

A bunch of other people, coworkers, neighbors and even some other residents, kept asking him if he really was going to go away throughout the day.

It all was so damn weird for him. He had never talked with any of these people for more than five minutes with nothing more than small-talk, but somehow they already considered him a part of their little community.

It was the first time something like this happened. In every other place’s he’s been before, from bigger cities to smaller towns, people didn’t mind when he was gone. Most didn’t say goodbye, except those who talked to him in a daily basis because their routines made them cross paths with his and therefore felt socially obliged to say a two-second goodbye, maybe adding a “take care” in to the mix.

Although he must admit that this settlement struck him as kinder than most the moment he got here so many weeks ago. People actually took the time to welcome him into the place, and were most than happy to let him join in with the exploration teams on the runs for supplies when he explained he wanted to explore. They even listened o his opinion about the weaknesses of their wall and took it upon consideration, and even now they were working to make the changes he asked.

…Maybe that’s why people have some kind of weird respect for him and don’t want him to go? because he criticized their wall? He’s not sure. Everyone’s been kind without over-doing it, to which he was thankful, but he never felt like he was an active part of anything, or like he got especially close to anyone.

He only exception would be Lance. He was one of the first people he met when he crossed those giant doors into the town; at that time they got in an ugly fight because of an accident where he made Lance trip and fall over some bread, making him squish it and thus making them almost throw hands right there.

Apparently, to their captain that was a splendid way to know someone because when joined the exploration team, Lance was instantly assigned to be his partner because “they seemed to already get along”

The point is; Lance has been there as his partner in every run to the outside, have been through some dangerous things right beside him out there, and he even took the trouble to accompany Keith whenever he had a little case of insomnia before their mission the next day, missing on precious rest before going to risk their lives out there.

But he was the one who was still to ask him what everyone’s been after his ass about during the entire day.

_Are you sure?_

_Why are you leaving?_

_Aren’t you tired of running around for so long? Why won’t you stay a little longer?_

And he didn’t know if he could brush it off if it was Lance’s voice who asked him. He will most definitely end up explaining himself. And he hated doing it.

It was no one’s business what was he searching so frantically out there for, why was he so ready to give up his life and fight those horrible creatures that haunted them.

“Are you not going to ask me like everyone else?” He broke the silence, tired of feeling like he was walking on a tight rope. “Aren’t you going to ask me to stay or anything?”

Lance stayed silent for a long moment, holding his cup to his lips in thought.

“…Why? It’s not like you ever listen o anything I say.” He huffed, his voice strangely emotionless.

Keith didn’t know what to feel about that answer.

Did that mean he wanted him to go or to stay? Does that mean that he was going to miss him but accepted his decision to leave? or did he just not care?

For some reason he didn’t dare to ask more.

They stayed in silence for the rest of the night, and if asked, Keith would most definitely deny wherever he snuggled closer to Lance through the night.

It was very cold and you cannot blame him if he did, though.

But he _didn't_.

It was around four in the morning when they saw a light drawing closer to their location in the distance.

Lance instantly jumped on his feet, leaving the blanket with Keith and running towards the railing, grabbing some binoculars out of Keith’s bag on the floor.

Keith slowly stood up with groggy eyes and a frown on his face, feeling irritation wash slowly over him at the realization that he almost fell asleep on Lance’s shoulder dawned over him. He decided to ignore it.

“Fucking finally!” Lance gasped “Why the heck did they take so long…” mumbled under his breath as he left the binoculars behind and quickly ran to their left where a bell was perched high on a pole was placed, and grabbed the rope and rang the bell very loudly, arm moving in excitement.

More bells started to follow suit around the wall, and when Keith looked down towards the dark town he noticed the different buildings and houses slowly lighting up with life as the guards in charge of the wall started to come out and move around the wall like a swarm of bees coming out of their hive.

Keith noticed he had never seen those bells being used before during his stay, and it raised his curiosity.

Without waiting, Keith walked to the railing on the other side, took the binoculars and looked through them; it didn't took him long to zoom into a caravan composed of one tank truck and another two smaller trucks together with another three cars, all of them stepping on the gas with hell on their heels. Literally, as a herd of monsters followed them barely a few miles behind them, eager to get to them and slowly growing in numbers.

When he turned around, he saw Lance light up a red flare, placing it right besides the bell.

“Who are those people? What's happening!?” Keith asked with a confused frown, tired of being left in the dark.

Lance turned around and smirked at him.

“You’re on your lucky day, pretty boy.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just wanted Lance to call Keith "pretty boy" but it ran away from me and he ends up calling him a bunch of different things. I can get behind this.


	2. The Gas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gas arrived, Keith is going away, Lance has feelings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alrght, guys! Last time we got some cuddling and feelings, This time we got more WORLD BUILDING!!!  
> To anyone who read the first chapter, welcome back! and to anyone just starting this, have fun!!

Lance looked at his watch for what seemed to be the 20th time in the last five minutes, jumping his knee up and down in a sense of hurry.

He and Keith had separated after he had explained everything to him and the Captain of the Wall's Guard arrived and took over the preparations for the new arrival.

But that was almost an hour ago. There was no way the convoy would take that long to get here, was it? He hasn't seen the wall's main gate open from where he currently stood either, and it was pretty much in front of him, he would notice.

Where the monsters outside bringing that much trouble?

"Alright, one after the other everybody, remember that when the truck gets here, we will only attend the people who are present on the line one after the other, and will only give tanks to those who bring in the empty ones!" A man with a red jacket announced, walking around the line and organizing people into the line in a futile sense of order.

One of the cars had broken from the caravan and entered the town ahead of the other ones, filled with representatives who helped with the preparations within the city and to organize the people before the trucks got here.

It was only once every two months when the gasoline and gas tanks came to their town after all (even though the governorate from the nearest bigger city had appointed it to come once a month) and every single person needed to recharge their tanks properly if they wanted to last until next time.

Normally, other places used the leftover underground tunnels leftover from the old cities that connected their settlements with one another to provide each other with food, water, gasoline, and others, including the region's main city, but their town was situated in a place too far away from the bigger cities to have those, so they had to wait for their supply runs from the capitol, who sent convoys to all the smaller towns.

Their little town used to be mainly a bunch of ruins of what used to be smaller suburban houses, and they transformed those into homes by cleaned the rubbles and repairing them and growing plants and farms, they even built a communications tower and entire four-store buildings from zero, that's how their little settlement came to be what it is now.

Even now, he remembers how years ago the governorate made a big fuss about building tunnels to connect the further away towns, theirs included, to cut down the costs of sending the supplies through caravans on the outside. No one really believed them going through it, even seeing how they went as far as to send people to make an entire inspection, mark down and get ready the construction zone, and even bring in a bunch of building supplies with them.

To no one's surprise, those supplies were just left there forgotten. And no one was permitted to touch those construction supplies or use the place for farming or anything else because of dumb rules.

Even now, people joke about their supplies getting lost on tunnels the governorate built whenever they took too long.

Which happened... every single month. Sadly.

Lance looked to his side, where a teenage girl bungled in a giant jacket and scarf had groggily walked to him and sat on the floor without caring anymore about five minutes after he got there, taking a nap as she buried her head on her knees. He wondered if he should tell her to watch out for his spot and give it to his siblings when they arrived as he quickly went to wait for the gasoline.

He shouldn't. She would totally steal it. Or just not care, really. Maybe he should give up and let them line up from the end of the line?

He took a step out to see how long it already got, he noticed with dismay that the line of people already disappeared down the corner. And he was no fool, ok? He knew that each of these people, especially the ones right in front and behind him; that they were saving the line for three to even ten more people.

He would feel awful if he let his own family make the line from so far behind when he already got himself a nice spot behind only other two people. (Who, again, were most probably saving their spot for another ten people each.)

Lance noticed the wall's big gate open from the corner of his eye, causing people to stand up and move around in excitement.

Shit, he was going to miss the gasoline, wasn't he?

Just as he was losing hope, he heard the voice of an angel calling out to him.

"Lance!"

He perked up at the sound of his sister Rachel's voice, and after turning his head one side and the other in search for them, he finally noticed her and his brother Marco walking along the line and searching for his face among the people.

"Over here!" He yelled back, waving his arms and probably waking up the teen girl sleeping beside him.

"There you are!" Rachel sighed, raising an empty gas tank from the floor and carrying it with her. "I almost panicked when the doors opened and we still hadn't found you."

"Nice spot little bro, who said having family working with the units didn't pay off?" Marco walked right behind her carrying another two gas tanks, one in each hand. "Thanks for giving us the heads and saving us a place up as soon as you saw it coming." Marco let a tank on the floor and shook Lance's shoulder in a proud gesture.

"It's only you two?" Lance asked, slowly walking away from his spot, feeling anxious to go to the gas station.

"Yeah" Rachel grumbled, sitting down on the obviously uncomfortable and not-made-to-sit-on tank, furrowing inside her big jacket. "Mom sent us out first to save the line while everyone else got ready." She finished with a yawn.

"Luis is on his way from his house, Vero can't come yet until everything on the wall calms down." Marco explained, hands inside his jacket's pockets.

"Ok, nice, great. Listen; I gotta go back and help out with the fuel, ok? You two go between this girl and this dude. I'll be back in a moment." He pointed out at between the girl sleeping on the floor and the 50 year old man a few meters away, resting on the wall and looking grumpy as his eyes were lost in space and blinking slowly.

Rachel gave him a suspicious look.

"...with the fuel? But you... You know what? Never mind, I’m too sleepy to care." Rachel grumbled, making Marco snort. "You go, we'll be fine. Thanks a lot. Whatever." She yawned and started to shoo him away, laying her head against the stomach of the still standing Marco, who patted her head.

"Hunk will be here any minute now, so watch out for him too!" Lance yelled behind him, already running towards his bicycle.

After all, Lance never said he wasn't saving his place in line for ten people too. 

* * *

"Hey! Good morning, beautiful!" Lance rested his arm against the truck and winked at the blonde woman coming out of the driver's seat. "Who needs the sun in the sky when we already have your beauty here to shine over us, eh?"

"What do you want, Lance?" Leifsdottir turned around and looked at him with a deadpan stare.

Lance cringed. "Not because I came to say hi means I want something!"

"Yes it does." She deadpanned again, turning around and closing the truck's door behind her, ready to keep on working. 

"Aww, don't be mean to him Ina!" The other girl appeared from the other side of the truck. "He must be really desperate to lay it on so thick."

"Rizavi! You're here, Perfect!" Lance sighed, hers was a friendly face that he was more used to deal with.

"...Does that mean I'm not the embodiment of sunshine anymore?" Leifsdottir asked, now climbing the stairs towards the top of the truck, tone still deadpan.

"N-No! No, of course not!" Lance blushed. "I-I'm just happy to see her too! You guys took a long time to get inside the town, I was just worried!" He laughed awkwardly, making Leifsdottir to actually bother to turn around and give him a deadpan stare. Again.

"Oh, it was just the monsters were being a bitch like usual." Rizavi rolled her eyes before giving him a new, evil stare. "Anyways, what is it? Trying to impress a girl by getting her some extra fuel again?" Rizavi walked closer to stand by his side, arms crossed and eyebrows jumping up and down.

"I must remind you that we are not allowed to give out any gasoline to any citizen for personal uses or for its storage, we are only authorized to fill the town's gas station up to half capacity so you can distribute it fairly between yourselves." Leifsdottir droned from the top of the truck.

"Yeah, and if I'm not wrong, things didn't work well between you and her." Rizavi frowned at the memory, laying against the truck in thought.

"It's not for a girl!" Lance huffed. "And to be fair, Jenny only needed a bit of gasoline to keep some cats out of her back yard, I was only helping out!"

"Ooh! Who is it then!?" Rizavi jumped up again.

"Rizavi, I must ask you to come and help me out in our job." Leifsdottir interrupted them, standing up on the truck's roof and showing a lightly inconvenienced face them from high up, the most emotion Lance has ever seen on her face. "And Lance, whoever that girl is, she can have gasoline from the gas station when we finish filling it, so please wait in line until we do." She droned at him.

"But he's not going to be here when you finish!" Lance complained. "We have a mission in a few hours and he'll go north right after we're done with it, he won't be back and you'll probably take like half a day! Please!" He begged.

"Come again, who?" Rizavi jumped up and down on her spot, eyes sparkling with interest.

Lance stopped in his tracks before answering, feeling the way his cheeks warmed in embarrassment.

"…A friend." He limited himself to say.

Ina and Rizavi shared a look.

"...Fine. But you'll owe us, Lance McClain." Rizavi sighed, but Lance didn't care, his smile was bright.

He made a little celebratory fist bump to himself when they both turned around.

* * *

He arrived back at the line just as the sun started to come out at six in the morning, immediately taking away the cold and making Lance take off most of his sweaters and the extra sweatpants and leaving them bunched up on the basket of his bicycle, knowing no one was about to take it as it was still in plain view from the line.

That's another thing that started happening after the last war ended, and that apparently wasn't supposed to be normal. (Or so his mother and grandma said to him) the nights became extremely cold, and during high noon the sun was so hot things could catch fire with ease. He's also been told it actually got better over time; that right after the Great War it was even worse and that people couldn't even go out during the day without gaining a severe burn, but wherever it was because people got used to it or because it actually got better, he did not know.

Officially, their little settlement together with the rest of the cities and towns spread through the entire planet has been in a constant state of "emergency" since it all happened.

In reality it's been even longer than that, as the world wasn't doing too hot during or even before the war.

With the mutant monsters prowling around and the lack of supplies and safe places from the monsters and the hellish weather just making it even worse; it’s been harder and harder for people to regain anything of what it used to be. There were very few cities around the world that still worked with an official government, and most places just did what they could to survive and help each other.

His family was one of the lucky ones; they used to own a farm not far away from here, and took shelter inside this little town soon after the monsters started appearing.

Anyways, even with the sun coming out now it was still chilly so he rubbed his arms for warmth as soon as he got out of the car and met his family, still at the top of the line where he left them but magically with at least fifteen people in front of them.

Thankfully, they were just starting to take the old gas tanks away to exchange them with the full ones; and the rest of his family had already arrived together with Hunk and his parents, who were accompanied by Pidge who grumpily sat on the floor by Hunk's feet as she tinkered with something electronic.

(That's about all Lance could tell you about any of her projects, really.)

"Hey buddy, you made it!" Hunk waved him over when he finished saying hi to his mom. "Glad we're all here! Or well, almost everyone. I wonder where Keith is."

"I don't think he'll come." Lance sighed. "He's going away today, remember? He won’t be needing gas."

"Oh, right." Hunk frowned.

"I don't understand why I have to be here, I don't cook with gas." Pidge grumbled from the floor.

"That's because _I_ cook for you, and by the way, heating food in the microwave isn't cooking." Hunk said, and Pidge huffed back.

"We can just cook stuff on a bonfire like Keith does or something."

“You and I both know we need those trees for oxygen.” Hunk sighed, giving up halfway and deciding to change the subject. "Anyways, I heard you were at the gas station, something happen?" Hunk looked him over with worried eyes.

"Nah, just saying hi to the girls." Lance waved off. "You know how they get if they don't get their monthly dose of Lance-Charm," He winked, and Pidge snorted out loud under them.

"Right." She said.

"Got anything to say, pipsqueak?" Lance grumbled at her.

"Oh, nothing really." She said in a nonchalant tone of voice. "By the way, Keith's here."

At the sound of Keith's name, Lance snapped his head around and found his eyes zeroing in on that mullet right away, as the aforementioned looked lost between the people, carrying one gas tank over his shoulder, jacket tied up on his hips and the morning sun shining on his eyes.

"Keith!?" He called out to him, voice kind of squeaky

Keith snapped his head up in their direction, finding them in the crowd and walking over to them with a quick pace.

"Lance, Hunk! There you are!" He stopped in front of them, taking the gas tank off his shoulder and leaving it on the floor. "Hey Pidge." He added when he saw her there.

"What are you doing here?" Lance asked, kind of awed at his precense.

"Oh, well, Hunk's mom is the one who lent me one of her leftover gas tanks after I arrived, so I thought it would be best to give it back now so they can reload it."

"Aww you really didn’t have to give it back, but thanks a lot Keith!" Hunk scratched the back of his head but still took the gas tank from him with a grateful smile.

“Nice hat by the way.” Pidge told Keith, smirking up at him.

Keith froze for a moment, raising a hand and touching his head in confusion, only to touch the hat Lance had given him last night and that he had forgotten to take off his head.

He swiftly pulled it off his head and threw it back at Lance with a scowl.

"By the way, are we still on today's mission?" Keith asked, deciding to ignore everything that happened the last five seconds. "We have to go at seven thirty, but if you guys are going to need the day to reload, I can just go now and let you guy’s--”

"No!” Lance interrupted him, voice just a little too loud and making him feel overliconscious under Keith's surprised stare. "I-I mean, no worries dude; the mission’s still up! The line actually goes pretty quickly, we’ll be there."

“Great. See you all there.” Keith gave them a little smile before taking off.

“See ya’ my... dude...” Lance sent some finger-guns and a wink his way, but he was already gone.

Hunk and Pidge gave him a look accompanied by some smirks, but he proceeded to ignore them.

He didn’t need anyone to point out how gone he was, he already knew.

* * *

Thankfully, the line went pretty quickly just as Lance said, and they had to stand very minimum comments from the representatives in charge of the gas about how they should be thankful about getting this gas for free (it wasn’t, they all paid for it in advance.) and how they were so kind to give it away like that. Lance avoided fighting them and rolling his eyes to the stratosphere by just concentrating on looking just as dead from the outside as he was on the inside.

Complaining didn’t help after all; last time any of them complained about anything they were left without any food rations for over three months.

Everyone in line looked dead too. It was a very unifying activity for the whole town to be woken up at 4 am and waiting two hours for them to give them their gas.

This is exactly why they were a close-knit community.

An hour later, he was walking towards the giant main door of the wall surrounding them, all changed up in his comfortable errand outfit and with his rifle and his bow and arrow strapped to his back along other supplies.

Hunk and Pidge went to get their truck, and they agreed to arrive with it on the entrance.

When Lance arrived, he found Keith already waiting with his old bike and the same old luggage tied up tightly on the back with which he first arrived so many weeks ago.

Keith now was wearing a black sleeveless shirt and a red flannel on top, unbuttoned and sleeves bunched up to the elbows. Old combat boots on his feet as always.

He looked wild and beautiful and completely unreachable, just like the first time

“Hey!” He forced himself to call out, walking up to him. “All ready to go?”

"Oh hey!" Keith turned around, snapping out of his brooding "Yeah... I already gave the dormitory key's back and everything. All that's left is just... To get going I guess." Keith shrugged.

"...great." Lance forced himself to sound cheaper than he felt, but even he knew he sounded completely lackluster.

Lance shook his own head, looking at the bottle full of gasoline still hanging from his hand and deciding to just give it to him now that they were alone. With a fake confidence, he went to stand closer, right beside Keith, and Lance could feel his heart on his throat but decoded to ignore it as he dropped his heavy backpack on the floor and raised the plastic gallon of milk full of gasoline for Keith's view.

"Hey man, listen I... I got you this." He pushed it towards Keith's hands.

"Huh? What? Is this... Gasoline?" Keith frowned at it.

"Y-yeah, the trip to the closest northern city is pretty long and I would hate it if you died out there because you couldn't make it." Lance shrugged, trying to be nonchalant about it but still feeling his heart beating with full force on his chest.

Keith looked between Lance and the gallon of gasoline with an indecipherable look. "Oh uhmm... I'm fine, you didn't have to..."

"Hupupupup!" Lance interrupted him, shaking his hand towards Keith's mouth and making him look perplexed. "Just... Take it. Consider it thanks for helping me find my awesome bow the other time and helping me save bullets when I hunt and for... well, everything else too." Lance shrugged his shoulders, raising a hand to the back of his head in embarrassment.

Something in Keith's awkward and confused expression told him he didn't exactly get what _'everything'_ entailed.

"Thanks... I- uh, appreciate it." Keith said after a while, a little stilted and awkward.

Lance just smiled, a little sad about his departure still. He wanted nothing more than to ask Keith to stay, to not go and forget everything out there, tell him he was going to burn out if he continued, that he had the opportunity to stay and build a life here alongside everyone right now.

But he knew that no matter what he said, Keith wouldn't listen.

He had something to do out there, something he was searching for desperately and wherever that was the self-fulfillment of his soul or because he lost his favorite knife in the dessert, Lance didn't know, but he did know Keith wouldn't stop searching for it, no matter what.

And if Lance told him to stay, he was scared of driving him further away, as dumb as that sounded.

Lance sighed out loud, breaking the silence

"Just... Don't be a stranger." He settled on, dropping a hand on Keith's shoulder and making him go stiff. "You can come back and say hi any time." Lance smiled.

Keith looked at Lance like a skittish, confused cat. "You... Want me to visit?" He asked slowly, as if barely being able to process it.

"Yeah man! Hunk and Pidge won't say much, but they liked having you around a lot, and they enjoyed tinkering with your bike." Lance laughed at that last part as he remembered his friend's shiny eyes when Keith had asked them to take a look at his bike when it had started malfunctioning some weeks ago, gushing about it being a classic or whatever.

He slapped Keith's shoulder heavily before dropping it over his shoulder in a side hug and after a moment, a blush starting to cover his cheeks and voice got smaller before talking again. "And uhh... Me too. I... I liked having you here too... It's been real."

Lance avoided looking at Keith's face as he said that, until his curiosity got him looking up and found himself staring right at Keith's confused face from up close. Or more like surprised, as his eyes looked over Lance's expression with some kind of glint and his mouth was slack, trying to find some words.

And for the fifth time this morning, his dumb heart began to race because of Keith.

Keith with his pretty eyes, and rustled hair and his bad-ass scar and his surprised face at the possibility of anyone liking his presence and so close to going away and never coming back...

"Lance, do you really..." Keith started to say, but got interrupted by a loud, deafening honking sound behind them, making Lance jump away from Keith as if the contact made his arm burn.

"Come on guys, I got us the good one! Let's say goodbye to Keith with a bang!!" Pidge screeched from the driver's seat of a fairly big truck, Hunk waved his hand at them from the co-pilot seat with a smile.

"Pidge!! You little dwarf, you scared the shit outta us!" Lance screamed at her, giving a last look at Keith before grabbing his backpack and walking towards them, low-key thankful for the interruption as he felt he was about to spill his guts, and Keith didn't need that before leaving.

"It's your fault for making goo-goo eyes at Keith." Pidge replied once he got closer with a lower voice so Keith wouldn't listen on, a taunting smirk high on her face.

"Screw you! You're too young to be driving anyways! Hunk, take over her seat!!" Lance escalated the truck's side to get to her window and gave them both the stink eye from up close.

"Fuck you, no way! You know I'm only a year younger than you, and I drive even better than Hunk!" Pidge yelled in indignation.

"Yeah dude, sorry. You know how much these trucks give me motion sickness." Hunk gave him an awkward smile.

Lance threw his backpack inside their truck with a huff. "Screw this, I'm not riding with you, you hear me?! You get my backpack, but not my heart! I'm going with Keith!"

"Not like you weren't going with him anyways."

"Hey! Cowboy!!" Lance interrupted Pidge's mumbling with a loud yell, dropping back to the floor and walking back towards Keith, who looked up from his gloves, already sitting on his bike.

"Mind giving me a last ride?" He asked with a smirk and a raised eyebrow.

Keith looked surprised for a moment before giving a small, almost imperceptible smile.

"...Sure."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tsk tsk tsk, i feel you right there Lance, i too have had to wake up at 4 am and run down to make along ass line to get some stuff from the government because the stupid truck couldn't arrive at a BETTER, DECENT HOUR.


	3. The Run

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They go into the city, Keith totally doesn't want to stay, shenanigans ensure inside a mall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hmmm is this an earlier update? it probably is. i'm trying to upload this at least every weekend, but surely there will come a time where I take longer to update, i just hope i keep my streak of writing! *crosses fingers*.   
> on another news: More world building, yey!!!! and also more pining because there is indeed never enough. also me complaining about resources and unleashing all my imaginary gushing if i found myself in a supermarket full of common amenities. 
> 
> So warnings: a lot of "oh my god's" and "jesus!", there's also a dead body, but it's mostly just a skeleton so its OK. there's also mentions of rotten food, and hunting.
> 
> enjoy!!

The plan was to go through the run like normal, get the things they needed, explore the place, and go. 

But this time, instead of going all the way back to their settlement, he would turn his bike to the right and go on his way to the next town up north on his own.

The other's had proposed him to go out of their way and accompany him for protection, but he refused. Gasoline, time, resources; those were all things they didn't have to waste, and he'd hate himself if something happened to the rest of the team on their way back because of him.

Right now they were passing through some worn down streets of what used to be a neighborhood but now it was only ruins at the outskirts of the giant walls from their little town, the monsters that gave them chase as soon as they got out but slowly started to dwindle in numbers and turning back around; they liked to stay around where the most quantity of people where.

Going back into town was even more dangerous; as they increased in number the closer you got and could end up swarming you if you weren't fast enough. Keith wasn't surprised that the gas took that much time to get inside the walls earlier that morning.

Thank god the town had its own defenses to keep the creatures at bay, especially The Net.

Soon enough, the scattered, crumbling walls and dried up plants gave way to a highway that directed them towards the city they were after. The way was clear so their little convoy started to move faster, finally leaving the last monsters giving chase behind.

Keith noticed Lance's arms go slack around his waist and felt his chest move as he gave a deep sigh, an indicative of the last monster finally giving up. Keith couldn't help but relax his own shoulders too at that knowledge.

He wondered when exactly had he picked up on these little things from Lance. The guy had insisted on riding with him in his motorcycle since day one, to Keith's chagrin. He wasn't used to let other people ride with him, but admittedly, he might miss this.

Lately, having Lance ride with him even felt somewhat safer than going alone. Of course, there was still the risk of crashing or some monsters catching up to them and ripping their heads off or worse, but he knew Lance always got his back.

He's a good partner, always keeping Keith up to date him the situation around them when Keith couldn't take his eyes off the road, and shooting the monsters wherever they got too close, he ended up saving Keith's back more than once. He was thankful for having Lance beside him for the past weeks.

He doesn't even know what he'll do with the stupid extra helmet he got for Lance when he gets to the northern city. He wouldn't need it anymore.

(He was also trying very hard not to think about what Lance had told him just earlier; about liking to have Keith around. It wasn't the time or moment. He needed to concentrate very hard in the empty patch of dirt moving before him.)

In no time they reached the highway towards the entrance of the city, and Keith snapped out of his thoughts to fully concentrate.

Their little town had cleared up a road into it, but only the people coming from their settlement knew the correct way in since the surroundings of the city where either blocked off or a maze of cars and caved-in tunnels without exit. No one ever dared to move any cars anymore either, most of the time they ended up being a trap or a hiding spot for the monsters around the zone.

The little suckers were a bit tricky like that sometimes.

As usual, Keith followed Pidge's slow trek inside the maze while both Lance and Hunk were on high alert until they finally got out of the maze of tunnels, some of which were holes in the walls connecting the tunnels to one another, until they finally reached an underground parking lot of sorts.

They parked in their vehicles one beside the other and proceeded to grab their own equipment for the round.

Keith got the katana he normally carried on the side of his bike, and made sure his knife was securely strapped to his hip.

...And that the other knife was also strapped safely inside his boot.

Actually he took a while to check in on all his knives, but better be safe than sorry.

Lance strapped the rifle to his back and exchanged it for the bow, as he preferred to use it in the city because of how silent it was and how many bullets he saved up.

He was the only one of their group who could carry a gun, their town can only afford to give one firearm to each team, no matter how big it is, and only a member with certified marksmanship could carry it, and for their team, Lance was the man.

Pidge came out of the truck followed by Hunk, she normally used a taser that she fixed herself; it could fire its barbs at a great distance, but it also extended into a longer stick she sometimes used to hit monsters (or people) with. She could actually kick ass with it and Keith pretty much admired her tenacity with such a weapon and her small body.

Hunk in exchange carried a big backpack with some supplies like water, snacks, a tool box and an emergency kit in case of accidents. They all carried their own personal supplies but he was assigned as the guy to carry any extra supplies they might end up needing in case anything happens or the mission ends up lasting longer, like it sometimes happened when it rained and they had to look for shelter.

Hunk didn't like to fight very much though, even with his big body and herculean strength he preferred to repair old tech, but he did have a metal bat he used to defend himself alongside a machete strapped to his hip he rarely ever used, and he's also a good support whenever they're in a tight spot.

Keith took a moment to look at them all as they rounded up around Pidge, who was taking out the map.

Honestly, it was one of the best, round-up teams he's ever been a part of; and they were nice to him to boot. Tomorrow, when he ended up in a crappy exploring team for the next city, most probably full of newbie’s as he usually ended up on, he's going to miss them.

"Ok guys, round up! Let's check the route again."

Pidge got their attention so they could all again take a last look at their map and trace the path together with the contingency routes they were using to get to their destiny: a little mall in one of the central areas of the city where they've been trying to enter for the last couple of expeditions to no avail, and that they had finally found the way to unlock it the last time they were here.

Sadly, they had to run away before going inside, since some monsters found them and called for more, they barely made it out of there that last time.

They weren't worried for any other stealing their hard work, theirs was the only town around, and smaller groups normally didn't enter big cities and even less ones so up close to a dead zone like this one was, the dead zones were sites full of radiation and home of monsters, and was marked just at the skirts on the other side of the city; making the city be inhabited with monsters in every direction and it just wasn't worth it for anyone else. Theirs was actually one out of the only three teams allowed into the city because of their experience and set of skills, and the only one who did so many runs into it.

If he was being honest, one of the reasons he agreed to get to the end of this mission before finally going away was the curiosity he had about the place. Going inside a whole building that hasn't been raided before or destroyed was extremely rare and he wanted to see what was inside, how those places looked before _everything_.

And yeah, maybe he wanted to see if he could find something nice to take for himself. Sue him.

They got out of the lot through a metal door only Pidge had the key of and closed it behind them, going up some stairs that took them to street-level.

Keith took out his katana and Lance took an arrow out and had it at the ready before they opened the door outside, making sure the coast was clear before they stepped out of the building.

They walked through the streets in silence as to not get any attention from the monsters, Pidge lead the way and decided where to go with the help of her heat-reading goggles, and a Geiger counter she built to alert them of any Lizards that could sneak up on them. She also built the goggles, like most of the tech she always brought with her.

The sun was already beating down on them harshly and it would only get worse as they got closer to midday. Keith looked up at the blue sky and hoped it didn't end up raining today. He had seen some clouds on the far distance on their way here and if it rained, they'd probably be stuck here for hours.

Lance took the opportunity to hunt down for some bunnies as they walked, those being in plain sight and munching into some plants that had grown through the cracks of the pavement. His arrows went through them swiftly, only hitting three from the many that ran away, but it was ok, he still had the rest of the way to get something more.

He was a really good hunter, really. Keith admired his ability for it.

He tied his prey with a rope and slung them over his shoulder before running back to the group, waiting for him before going further.

It sure was a pain to walk all the way there, but none of the streets were safe to ride any vehicles anymore. They were too broken, too bumpy, and there were too many trees and wild life as to drive safely. Without mentioning the disruptive sound of the motor contrasting against all the nature sounds would be like sounding an alarm on yourself for the monsters to come down and hunt you.

It took them half an hour to arrive, be it from being deviated from their way because of monsters prowling around and having to take another path, or because Lance hunted some more.

They finally arrived to the mall and walked to the back door, they all shared a look of excitement as Pidge got to work on the electronic pad lock once again.

You see, it's not that entering the place itself was difficult per-se. They could break the door down if they wanted to, but what was really _difficult_ was to enter the place without tripping an alarm off.

See, this place had a mother-fucking grade-A electric generator, and the fool who last locked the place down forgot to turn it off. Sum that up with an annoying security system that tripped if someone as so much breathed on the lock without having the dumb ass security clearance and you got a nice recess alarm that told any monster fifty miles away that their meal was served.

Hunk and Pidge had been trying to deactivate the frigging alarm system for weeks, but seemingly it was one of the latest ones made and tricky as hell. Normally Keith and Lance spend their time hunting or exploring the buildings close-by, sometimes they even helped them as much as they could, and normally it also ended up in a wild chase as they ran away for their life; but finally, _finally_ they were able to do it.

The sound of the dumb door opening was one of the most satisfactory things he's ever heard in his life.

They all shared big excited smiles as they entered one by one and silently closed the door behind them.

"You, fucking god damn asshole!" Pidge suddenly yelled a few steps in, pointing at a skeleton lying in the floor a few meters of them, or more like directly at the I.D. card hanging from its shirt's front pocket.

"You know how much time this thing would've saved us!?" She screeched again, snatching the I.D card and falling onto her knees in defeat.

"Oh god... Why did we have to find _this_ as soon as we come in..." Hunk looked a little green.

"Oh, wait, he's a security guard!" Lance pointed at some kind of gun tied to its hip. "I think this dude has a gun!!" Lance got closer to the body and took it. "Oh wait, false alarm, it’s a taser. Forget it." He frowned.

"He must've locked himself in after getting hurt or something." Keith got closer and pointed out at the dried blood all over the shirt.

"Yeah, would explain why it's so close to the door..." Lance mused in agreement.

"Wait, do you think it's got some kind of master keys for the mall or something? Quick! Check out the pockets!" Pidge perked up, searching through its pockets with haste.

"Oh my god guys, can we please stop poking at the dead body!?" Hunk screeched at them. "What if it's spirit is still out there, haunting the mall!? I-I think we should go back!"

Lance scoffed. "Come on Hunk, chill. There's been like, at _least_ one dead body inside every single building we've been in here."

"That's not true; there wasn't one at the bakery!" Hunk jumped to defend.

"There was one _right in front_ of the bakery!"

"Yeah but not _inside_!"

"Oop! Got 'em!" Pidge jumped up, a large ring full of keys tingling in her hand. "Let's go!" She started running off, a huge smile on her face.

"Sweet!" Lance smiled, running after her and leaving a groaning Hunk behind.

"It's OK big guy. We'll cremate it and give its spirit some rest." Keith briefly patted on his shoulder before walking off the same way the other two left.

He heard Hunk scramble after him just as he turned a corner and went towards the end of the dark, white hall until he found a door already wide open from Pidge and Lance going through before him. He crossed it and found himself in the middle of the mall's entrance hall.

Both Pidge and Lance had their mouths hanging open, slowly turning around in circles as they took in the place around them.

Every store, every place was basically untouched, the windows were intact and the doors still closed, there were even some Christmas decorations on the ceiling and the walls, and it looked as magical as one could ask for in this day and age.

Of course, the time it spent closed and without maintenance had taken its toll. The decorations looked worn down and yellowish and some had even fallen on the floor, the place was dirty, the lights didn't work anymore and the ones who miraculously did work blinked constantly and the walls had huge cracks with some plants growing in between them.

But man, he could basically imagine how it looked during its prime.

"Oh, sorry!"

He found himself stumbling onto Hunk, who was looking around with an amazed face just alike Lance and Pidge's when he entered, and he noticed he must've been doing the same up until now.

"I don't get any signals or see anything amiss..." Pidge mused, goggles over her eyes. "We're definitely alone here, no bad guys in sight." She confirmed.

"Wait, really! We can be loud in here?" Hunk awed.

"As much as we want, baby." Pidge smirked up at him, throwing in a wink.

"Oh Jesus! Guys, take a look at this!" Lance called over from the end of the hallway; none of them had even noticed him walking away.

The three of them walked towards the voice and arrived to what looked like the center of the building; you could see almost the entirety of the mall from here as each and every floor could be visible and accessible through a string of mechanical stairs.

But most importantly, there was a huge ass tree. A gigantic Christmas tree filled with dead lights and giant Christmas decorations, and even some giant Christmas presents under it.

The three of them gasped and ooh-ed at the sight.

"I know, right!? You think we can take it back home? Maybe we can use it to decorate the plaza during Christmas, can you imagine having the Christmas party with it!?" Lance started to ramble as he paced around it and smiled with glee towards the tree.

"I mean, I don't think it would fit inside the truck, but if we tie it on the _outside_..." Hunk started to squint at the tree, taking some imaginary measurements with his hands from where he stood.

"Guys! Focus! Important things _first_ , and that means we need to raid electronics, medicine, food and get a look at that generator! If we can bring that thing back home with us, we could even afford to keep The Net working at all times!!" Pidge got starry-eyed at that last thought.

"We could even find more clothes... And weapons, and tools..." Keith started to mumble, feeling somewhat overwhelmed. They could just about find anything here, even things they couldn't find any more nowadays, but it would take days, even weeks to take it all out without letting the monsters notice them.

The only thing they had by their side was the fact that so no other group would come and take their bounty, but with all the people they were going to need, and the constant transportation's, will make the hordes of monsters restless, and there would be lives lost in the process if they weren't careful.

Without mentioning he will be leaving after today, there was no way they'd be able to explore and see everything in just one day. They hadn't even started and he already felt like he was running out of time.

Hunk suddenly gasped loudly, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"Oh my goooooood" He stood in front of the window looking directly inside a store. "Guys, I think I just found paradise."

"What!?" Pidge perked up, running towards him and gasping as loudly as Hunk did when looking inside.

Both Keith and Lance shared a dubious look, but walked towards the other two and took a look inside the store.

It was, unsurprisingly, a giant hardware store. Through the show-window you could see different types of electronics, mostly small ones like electronic tablets and phones, and a phew drills and electric saws, but when you looked past those and deeper inside, you could notice stacks upon stacks of stuff, like TV's and saw's and drills and--

"Wait a moment!" Lance shrieked, suddenly sticking his face against the glass in an attempt to see better inside. "Are those a pile of fucking generators right there!?"

Hunk gasped with joy at his words and stood beside him to take a closer look, Keith did the same out of curiosity. "Oh my god, _they are!!_ I mean, they're smaller ones to like, barely support _one_ house but--"

"How the heck are we supposed to get in there!? The front door’s shut with a gate” Lance wondered aloud.

"I mean, we could always pick the lock--" Keith started to offer, but got interrupted by a loud crash close to them.

When they turned their heads around, they saw Pidge with Hunk's metal bat in hand (when did she even take that!?) And the glass from the other window broken spread across the floor in front of her.

"What?" She frowned. "This is the fastest way. And it's not like its _illegal_ or anything in this place." She shrugged, as she took another hit at the window to break the rest of the glass that was left.

They all helped her out with taking all the electronic tools out of the way from the show-window and in a pile on the floor, those were all useful too, and as soon as the coast was clear, Hunk and Pidge ran inside like a couple of kids inside a toy store.

"Oh my god Hunk, they're really generators!! In different sizes!! With these and the big boy on this mall, maybe we could finally have some electricity back home and stop depending from the fools trying to fix the central!!" She stopped her own rambling with another gasp "Maybe we could even have phone signal everyday or- or TV-- No! Wait! Maybe we could even hook one to our workshop and we could work during the night time too!!"

"Pidge, look at all this stuff!! Maybe we could finally fix those panels and even build some-- oh boy, there are some satellites!!! There are satellites, Pidge!! We could expand our radio band-zone to other cities and strike some more deals with them! Oooohhh look at this saw!!" Hunk screamed back at her from a different hallway.

Both Keith and Lance shared another look as they both slowly walked around the store to the general direction where their teammates disappeared, when they finally cached up to them they were already head-deep in tech and Pidge was already tinkering with some of it.

They both looked at each other again and after an extremely efficient eyebrow-conversation that Keith was sure he wouldn't be able to pull off with anyone else, promptly decided to let them be and go away. It was most probably going to take them a while and it was just a matter of time before these two were sharing one of their... Weird... Moments between the two that usually involved tech in here.

"Uhh, all that sounds great guys! Keith and I will keep exploring and search for some food and medicine or something!" Lance yelled at them, slowly walking backwards.

"Oh! Uhh, sure! Take the radio with you!" Hunk waved off without looking up at him, eyes staring at some tools.

"Sure thing, buddy!" Lance threw them a smile and grabbed onto Keith's arm, running off with him.

Once they were outside, they both agreed to go into a supermarket or a pharmacy. Those were the most probable places where they could find imperishable food, alongside certain restaurants at the food court.

They checked in with the almost-unreadable old map on their floor. It was only a floor on top of them, and they shouldn't take that long to arrive, but they couldn't help stopping from time to time to see inside some stores, all full with either clothes or sportswear, one had _only shoes._ Lance might've drooled in front of that one for a bit. Keith promised him they would check it later for both their sake. His own boots were also completely wasted.

The supermarket was also closed off, but Keith did a quick work of the headlock on the gate and they both quickly walked in.

It was freaky having the glass front door open up automatically as they got closer; and he hit Lance on the shoulder after he laughed at Keith for jumping away at the sudden movement of it.

There was a stale smell in the air, and as they walked around the aisles, they noticed they were surprisingly empty of food and most of the things they did found were already stale and gone way way past their expiration date.

But still, Keith and Lance's eyes sparkled and found themselves gasping in excitement at the sight of all the things with every new aisle they walked on, because listen. L i s t e n.

There was pasta, and coffee, and holy grail that's _sugar!_ not much of it, but there _was some_ and _holy shit._

And fucking canned food, corn, soups,tomatoes, you name it. It's been fucking ages since Keith saw anything canned. There was even dog food! And cat food! He didn't even know that was a thing before the war!! Mascots back in town were going to have a fucking field trip with that, you know how much food their owners were going to save up by not having to give their pets part of their own supplies!? Fucking insane!

Both Lance and Keith ran around grabbing anything useful they could find; filling their back packs and any extra sacks they bought with them. They never really had the opportunity to use those and they normally just laid folded up at the bottom of their luggage unless they found something too big to carry on their backpack's but now they were brimming full of all different things.

There were, of course, a lot of things full of mold, or already gone so bad to the point it was just a bag of green mold and fungus and that will probably haunt Keith on his nightmares for the rest of time, and they had to swear to never show the cartons of putrid milk to Pidge less she chooses to use them as cheese or something, but they were still excited to see a supermarket looking almost the same as back then.

"Oh my god, we're going to need to make multiple trips back to the truck, Keith! Multiple trips!!" Lance freaked out; Keith smiled back at him in excitement.

In that moment, Lance turned around and noted the pharmacy sitting innocently at the far back of the store.

"Holy cow Keith; _the pharmacy_!!" He shrieked, dropping whatever he had in his arms and running towards it.

Lance jumped over the counter, landing with practiced ease on the other side, and easily crossed the door towards the back storage.

Keith followed him at a slower pace, laying his elbows on the counter and waiting for his partner; curiosity taking over him.

"Holy shit dude, there's like, actual medicine in here!!" Lance yelled back from the inside. "And not like, one or two boxes of useless shit but like-- actual ibuprofen and stuff!!" He gasped "There's insulin!! Actual insulin!!" Lance ran out, a few tiny, glass bottles in his hand. "Can you believe this shit!? I mean there's not that much but-- holy shit!!!"

Keith laughed after seeing his face; Lance's eyes were bugging out and twitching, his hands were trembling. Keith was actually scared he might actually get a seizure.

"You know those most probably got past their expiration date, right? I doubt any of it could last almost forty years." Keith raised an eyebrow with his statement, making Lance's over-the-top-excited face go blank in a matter of seconds.

Lance's face stayed frozen like that for a minute, eyes lost in space, before he finally looked down at the tiny bottles in his hand and started to turn them around between his fingers, trying to read them.

"Wait-- no, that's not-- ...fuuuuuck." Lance cursed with feeling, letting the bottles slowly fall from his hand and into the counter.

"I know." Keith patted his shoulder. "But the bottles are already piss-yellow Lance, there's no way it was still good."

"God, this sucks..." Lance lamented, shoulders slumping. "All of this medicine and food so close to us and it all got wasted, locked behind these doors and that stupid alarm." He turned around, looking defeated at the door leading towards the storage. "Can you imagine how many lives all this medicine could've saved? How many days they could've won for the sick? For someone like my grandma?"

Keith stiffened at that. He knew the story behind Lance's grandma, he sometimes talked about it during their late-night talks. He knew Lance loved her, she was a sweet older woman and often told Lance stories about how things used to be before the great war, about apps and internet and memes and about living in a farm, free, without monsters and surrounded by plants and the blue sky, about how was life during the war, about the beginnings of the little emergency settlement than then became their home.

Only recently Lance had finally told him what happened; she was diabetic, and died from a sugar-drop caused by not being able to continue her treatment due to the lack of insulin. All this happened when Lance was still young.

"Hey." Keith tried to snap him out of his thoughts, laying a hand on his shoulders and squeezing, looking at him in the eye. "At least we got the bandages and alcohol and stuff. Those can still save lives too."

Keith tried to give him a confident smile, but he knew he fell short.

"Thanks, man." Lance smiled back at him either way, so he counted it as enough.

"Anyways, you know what was a _real_ waste?" Lance perked up, jumping over the counter again and walking towards the end of an aisle not too far from them.

"These bad boys!" Lance took a little box and shook it in front of Keith, who only looked confused.

"What are those?" He asked, walking close and grabbing a box, reading the words _'extra sensitive'_ and _'for her pleasure'_ on them with a frown.

"What, you've never seen a box of condoms before?" Lance asked out loud, eyes stuck on the box as he tried to open it.

"A What!?" Keith exclaimed, letting the box slip and fall to the floor.

"Well, I guess you don't see them often anymore..." Lance mumbled, taking out a long strip of condoms from the box, long enough it fell to the floor.

"Hey, wanna try them out? See if they really stopped working?" Lance smirked devilishly at him, ripping one away from the rest.

"Do what now!?" Keith asked, voice breaking. He could feel his face burning as it was probably as red as a tomato, an image of Lance on top of him, sweaty, hair a mess and whispering sweet things into his ear popped into his mind, and Keith swiftly shook his head to get rid of it.

Luckily, Lance didn't seem to be paying any attention to him, as he took the condom out of its little package.

Before Keith could ask him what the fuck was he doing, Lance took the condom to his lips and started inflating it like a balloon.

Sadly it didn't take long before it popped.

"Aww man, these things used to be super stretchy." He lamented "I used to play around with them when I was little, my dad always got mad at me but man, and these things could grow!" He explained under Keith's confused stare.

Sadly Keith only got himself more questions, but Lance just decided to ignore him to keep inflating more condoms.

When he had two long inflated, he threw one at Keith and got into an exaggerated sword-fight position.

"En garde!" He yelled, before chasing at Keith with exaggerated sword motions.

"You know I have a real sword, right?" Keith deadpanned, but still followed Lance's lead.

It was their last day together after all; he might as well follow Lance up with his ridiculous antics.

It had nothing to do with the way his blue eyes shined and the brilliant smile that took over Lance's face when he got into position; and even less with the way he had looked so hopeless just before.

They both ended up dropping their deadly weapons rather quickly, already losing air, and started wresting each other instead, Lance tried to pin him to the floor to no avail, as Keith quickly turned them around and ended up pinning Lance instead. Their laughter slowly died down and was replaced by the sounds of their heavy breathing.

"Alright bad boy, you win." Lance sat up, laughter still tingling on his voice and blush light on his cheeks.

Keith rolled off of him, fighting the blush on his cheeks and clearing up his throat. There was no time for this; they were supposed to be working.

"We have no time for this, Lance." Keith echoed his thoughts with a grumble, frustrated with himself.

"Alright, alright. Let's go look for the hygiene products, I bet there's razors or something we can he take." Lance stood up with a roll of his eyes, turning around to the next aisle.

Keith followed behind him, but before they could really sit down and sort through it all, Hunk's voice crackled through the radio.

_"This is Yellow Mango to Blue Berry, we need to talk to you and cherry red, I repeat, we need to talk to you two, over."_

They both jumped at the loud voice cutting the atmosphere between them, Lance even put a hand on his chest trying to calm himself before he grumpily answered.

"Geez, you almost gave me a heart attack! What do you want, Hunk? " Lance yelled back, grabbing a box of cotton balls and trying to find the expiration date on it.

 _"Blue Berry, I will need for you to use the fucking pseudonyms when we're talking through the radio you stupid idiot! Over!"_ Pidge's voice came out next, obviously pissed.

Lance left out a long suffering sigh.

"What do you guys want, Yellow and Green? Over." Lance deadpanned, looking at Keith like as if to tell him _'see what I have to put up with?'_

 _"J-Just--"_ Hunk talked, and they could hear Pidge groaning loudly in the background, Keith could imagine her pinching the bridge of her nose and trying to fight off a migraine " _Just come to the big entrance, we need to rendezvous, Over."_

"Just say we need to meet up, stop using those weird words!" Lance groaned, rolling his eyes.

 _"Lance, just get your dick out of Keith's ass and get your ass over here! Over!"_ Pidge yelled at them, Lance squeaked loudly, face crimson red.

Lance pressed the button and breathed in, ready to scream at Pidge through the radio, but Keith just covered his mouth and took the radio from him with a glare.

"We'll be there, over and out." He grumbled back at them, giving another glare at Lance as he put the radio on his own belt.

"I swear, every single time we use the walkie-talkies, you and Pidge get like this." Lance was looking away from him, face so red Keith swore he might have a fever. "Are you ok..?"

"I'm fine!" Lance snapped up, voice breaking with nerves. "Let's just go."

Lance set a brisk pace away, not even stopping to stare at the stores and Keith found it difficult to keep up.

As they got closer to the entrance, Keith could hear clearly what the problem was.

The loud pitter-patter of the rain echoed around them, as the clear view of it washing away at the city could be seen through the giant windows of the foyer.

"Oh no..." Keith slowly stopped at the view; there was no way he was going home today anymore. Even if it stopped raining soon, the fumes left behind would take over the city's air, and everything would be coated with it, they'd have to wait for a while.

Lance, on his part didn't stop walking until he got to Hunk and Pidge, hitting her in the head a gaining a very affronted yell from her.

"Hey!"

"That's what you get for being an asshole, you little gremlin!"

"Hey guys, come on, don't fight!"

The three of them started to yell between them, and Keith let out a tired sigh. They were a good team, but they all tended to goof around way too much.

"We can't get out like this anymore." Keith called out, walking towards them.

Hunk winced at his words. "Yeah, sorry buddy we know you wanted to get on your way today, but when we noticed the time and got out of the store, it was already raining."

Keith snapped up with his words and searched through his pockets until he found his almost forgotten phone. he looked at the screen, gasping as he read it already was four in the afternoon. Where did all their time go!? Did he really spend that long with Lance at the supermarket?

"Well, at least this will give us the time to organize ourselves better; we can explore some bore and gram as much as we can before we leave first thing in the morning. And hey, at least you won't be arriving up north during night time." Pidge smiled up at him, trying to cheer him up.

"I guess..." Keith frowned at the direction of the rain. It almost didn't happen, but it sure was a pain when it did.

"Ouch!" Lance jumped away from where he was standing, grabbing his neck with a pained face and looking up with a frown.

As if in slow motion, they all saw a drop of rain water fall from the ceiling and hit the floor, causing a light sizzling sound come out.

"We’ll need to find a good place to sleep; one without any leaks." Lance grumbled at the floor, and Hunk winced at him.

"Its ok buddy, I got you." Hunk got closer to him, getting the first aid kit out and starting to attend the small burn on his skin.

"That's going to leave a mark, stupid acid rain..." Lance grumbled, sad.

"It's ok Lance, you can't get any uglier anyway." Pidge patted on his arm.

"Aww thanks Pid-- Hey!!" He glared at her.

"Come on guys, I'm sure there's a store that sells big beds and mattresses somewhere!" She started to walk away, turning around as she walked "I call dibs on the biggest, softest one!!" She screamed before she kept running off.

"Wait, no! Not again!!" Lance ran off after her.

"Aww come on, Lance! I wasn't over with you!" Hunk screamed after him, quickly packing it back inside his backpack before running after them.

Keith smiled to himself before walking after them. Maybe he didn't mind staying with these guys just one more night.

* * *

They all ended up exploring the mall even more, the whole team exchanged their shoes for new ones from the stores, and he admittedly had fun seeing Lance and Hunk try on the clothes they found.

They awed when entering the store and finding so many different beds, but didn't end up sleeping in separate mattresses though, when you where in a dark new place surrounded by monsters while acid poured down all over the place, you wanted to know your whole team was ok next to you.

So they all ended up sleeping in the same, gigantic king bed in the middle of the store, , bellies full with both the food they brought and some of the bunnies Lance hunted earlier. It was the best food Keith has had in a while, especially with the touch of Hunk's magic by using an electric kitchen and all the spices Keith and Lance found on their part and Pidge broke out some beers from the stuff Lance and Keith had found from the supermarket, and they all cheered before taking a gulp from the warm beer.

"I got too excited when I saw those generators..." Pidge sighed deeply, taking another sip. "I ran to the back hoping to find hundreds of them, but there were like-- barely three of them!"

"Yeah... People must've been taking them like warm bread with the war and all going on..." Hunk poked at his food with a frown before snapping his head up. "D-Don't get me wrong! I'm thankful for all the cool stuff we found, but the most important things we need are always a bust."

"Yeah..." Lance winced "We didn't found much on the supermarket either, most of it was already mold. We did found some cans and pet food but nothing in the back either."

"We did find toilet paper." Keith hummed.

"Oh, and some alcohol and cotton and stuff!" Lance perked up with a smile towards Keith."Without mentioning all the clothes and shoes! Everyone back home will go crazy with those!"

"And you guys can still use the generator on the basement, don't you." Keith shrugged at the other two.

"Oh yeah, we went down there and visited all the worker rooms too." Hunk smiled.

"That generator was gigantic! It's insane!" Pidge perked up and fixed her glasses on her nose before going on. "It's drilled to the floor though, and we will need some more people to come and help us move it, but it can be done, it fits into out truck."

"I'm happy for you guys." Keith gave them all a little smile. "There's a lot still left to explore here, so all of you still have a lot to do."

Hunk suddenly winced. "Oh, yeah... I forgot you were leaving tomorrow..."

An awkward silence felt over them, but before it could simmer between them, Pidge perked up again.

"Well, don't act as if it’s none of your business anymore!" Pidge gave him the stink eye, pointing at him with her spoon. "What, just because you're leaving you think you're dome with us!? You better come back and visit us mister!"

"Oh yeah! I'll bake you something good if you come!" Hunk smiled. "Just ask for anything and ill whip something up!"

"You better bring anything cool you find, we can't have all the other big cities keeping the cool stuff!" Lance winked at him.

Keith just stared at them as if a monster had come out and started to dance cha-cha in front of him, and a weird, warm feeling taking over his chest against his better sense.

Keith didn't know what to do with this, they were probably just being polite too, or just overly friendly, but definitely not serious about this.

"I... I don't know..."

"Come on dude! We don't ask you to come every week, but if you find yourself close to here you can always drop by! You'll be always welcome!" Hunk patted heavily on Keith's shoulder, almost making him drop his food.

"Yeah! I'll work on re-establishing our signal, so we can all video chat any time!" Pidge perked up.

Keith looked at them both with unease, and then looked back at Lance, internally asking for his opinion. Lance was oddly entertained by his food, but looked at him from the corner of his eye; he looked like he wanted to say something, like he was containing himself from self exploding.

Or maybe it was all Keith's imagination. 

But Lance still gave him a smile and a small nod, and Keith felt his heart beating on his chest at that, feeling the confidence take over him.

So maybe, just maybe, it was alright to visit if he didn't have much to do.

"Alright, but I won't promise anything..."

Everyone's faces illuminated with their smiles, cheers echoing around him as Hunk kept patting him warmly on the shoulder, and Keith felt like it was all worth it.

And so, they spent the rest of the night with a beer in hand and sharing stories until they all fell asleep one by one.

This time around, Keith slept comfortable through the night, all the excitement from the day and the day before resting heavily on his muscles, and releasing until he was completely lax and his breathing slowing until the sleep took over him without him even noticing.

His peaceful rest got interrupted as a trembling shook the building, making him snap up and sit up, hearing a far away booming noise, and then another as another shudder took over them.

He shook the person sleeping beside him, Lance, urging him to wake up.

“Lance! Lance, wake up!” he whisper-shouted at him, only stopping when his eyes started opening and his eyebrows join in a frown.

“What… what is it?” Lance’s voice was raspy with sleep.

“Lance, I think someone’s out there exploding stuff!”

A beat.

“…what?” Lance deadpanned, sitting up and looking at Keith with squinted eyes, hair a mess. 

Keith decided to ignore the need to run his hand through his hair and fix it.

"We need to get going." Keith stood up. "Help me wake up Hunk and Pidge"

Lance groaned out loud.

"whyyyyy..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys are enjoying yourselves because i sure am confused on where i am going, also i googled things like walkie-talkie lingo, the rate a human body decomposes (you know they become skeletons in ONE year!? like?? i thought the body would stay juicier for a while longer but i guess not.) i also searched about acid rain, radiation, what was the name of the Geiger counter, oh! and the rate of decomposition of toilet paper.... i really am going out of my way to make this world hellish even though its supposed to be like, a future distopian/apocalyptic version of our world.   
> I hope I didn't confuse anyone with any explanations or that i made things obvious enough for you guys to catch on, if not, please say so! ill fix the explanation to make it more readable, or try to explain it more in future chapters!  
> also, things will get interesting next chapter, and by that i mean, others appearing and action scenes! yey! wish me luck!!! i don't even know how half the action is going to go... -cries-


	4. The Stranger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They see what's happening outside and Keith promptly decides to help, Lance is whipped so he follows him. Action and monsters ensue, but the good thing is that they get a new ally!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HOHOHO welcome, to the start of the Heavy Plot. This chapter and the last one were supposed to be only ONE but as you can see, it got away from me. I hope you guys enjoy it, once I deciphered the action I was a happy gal and wrote it pretty fast but there were still a lot of mishaps, and one deleted scene. Either way, please enjoy, and if you see any mistakes please forgive me! See the end notes for more little notes and world/building too, ALSO, just so you guys know there's a change in point of view signaled by a double break, so have fun~~!

Keith and Lance proceeded to frantically wake up Hunk and Pidge, both of them groggy and sleepy and not too happy about it as Pidge threatened them with her taser, but when they all feel another tremble shake the building the both of them snap to alert; and then they're all racing out the little store they were at and quickly go up the stairs until they find themselves crossing the door to the roof, the freezing cold of the night biting at their skin and the broken moon barely illuminating their surroundings in it's high place in the sky behind a thick cloud, Lance was looking through a pair of binoculars to take a closer look at the scene happening a few streets in front of them.

It wasn't hard to get a grip of the situation; someone was clearly being chased by a group of very violent people, as the group shot their guns repeatedly without a care and making them echo loudly through the peaceful night, riling the monsters out of their hiding and getting all their attention.

"Who are those!? How did they even get here!?" Hunk screeched with his knees and head bent nervously, keeping himself low as the shooting noises kept echoing close-by.

"It seems like they blew their way in. Literally." Pidge pointed out at the fires raging on the horizon, just at the other side of where they came from. She rubbed her own arms absentmindedly, she was the type to fight the cold by focusing in anything but it, but still maintained herself close to Hunk to hide from the breeze.

"That makes no sense; the dead zone is in that way." Lance frowned at the direction of the fires, relinquishing the binoculars to Keith and looking back down to look from the distance, rubbing his arms furiously to keep the little warm he had.

"Oh boy, what do we do? What if come inside the mall!?" Hunk looked worried at all of them, body shivering. Lance believes it’s most definitely because of the cold.

"I doubt they will do that." Keith pointed at the person running away from the others, binoculars still in hand. "They already passed through here, and with the monsters giving chase there's not enough room to turn back around."

"Yeah, but they will probably make the creeps restless; we won't be able to get out of here safely after they're done." Pidge got closer to the edge and frowned down, looking intensely at the dark monsters running down the street. "Fucking assholes." She grumbled under her breath.

"I say we take our stuff and go back to the truck while they keep the monsters distracted" Hunk meekly raised his hand.

"I agree, with the noise they're making the little assholes won't pay attention to us if we move silently" Pidge sighed, sleepily scratching one eye under her glasses as she walked back towards Hunk, finally giving up and burrowing on his side to try and keep warm as Hunk put an arm around her. "We take as much as we can carry, and then come back in a week with reinforcements to take the rest of the stuff with us."

"I wonder why they're chasing that dude..." Lance wondered aloud, looking at the general direction where the group disappeared to."I mean, even if they did something _bad_ enough to be chased, there's no point in chasing them like _that_ in a zone full of monsters. And to be honest, they _do_ look like the kind of group that deserves whatever the little dude did to them."

"There's no point in worrying about that, we need to worry about ourselves first." Pidge huffed as she pressed herself tighter against Hunk.

"...We need to help that guy." Keith stated, eyes still looking through the binoculars and making everyone snap their necks at his direction.

"What!?"

"Are you crazy!?"

"Keith, my man, think about what you're doing." Hunk's voice was serious but wobbled with worry "Did you not see the horde of rabid monsters behind them!?"

" _And their guns?”_ Lance cut in, voice more nervous than normal. _“_ Because they have those, and are shooting them willy-nilly! They could shoot you before even realizing you're there!" Lance snapped at him.

"Fine, Then _I'll_ do it!" Keith shoved the binoculars at his chest and walked past him. "You guys can take your stuff and run back to town in the truck, I'll go by myself."

"Whoa whoa whoa! Stop it there, fire cracker!" Lance tugged him from the collar of his shirt, making Keith turn around and slap his hand away with a glare, but Lance decided to ignore his reaction in lieu of talking.

"Even if you go down there, what's your plan? Where are you going to take him? Because after you randomly join that guy, you will have those dangerous people after you too!" Lance tried to reel in his biting tone, he didn't want to fight.

"I don't know, I'll figure it out as we go." Keith grumbled, glaring right at him.

"Then why? Why is it so important to do this!?" Lance pressed on "Normally you'd be the first one to tell us to leave it alone!"

"Because it's the only lead I have!!" He yelled back at him, hands curled up in fists at his sides and rage boiling through his veins. "The only lead I've had in years, and I'm not going to waste it!" He hissed.

Lance's face changed from raged worry to surprise.

"Keith..." Lance's voice was small, but Keith cut him off.

"And don't you dare try to stop me." Keith looked at all of them before turning around and stomping off, leaving the three behind him looking at his back as he left, awkward silence filling the space between them for a minute.

Both Hunk and Pidge shared a worried look.

"Is he... Serious?" Pidge asked weakly.

"I think so..." Hunk replied nervously.

Lance felt the worried looks from his partners and let out a deep, long suffering sigh and closed his eyes for a moment.

He was already regretting his next decision.

"...You guys go back to the truck, I'll go with Keith." He grumbled as he stalked off onto the same direction Keith left.

"Oh my god..." Pidge sounded tired as she grumbled under her breath, receiving an elbow on her side from Hunk.

"We'll wait for you, buddy." Hunk waved after him. "Take the radio with you!" He added.

Lance heard them talking behind him and he waved on their general direction before he went down the stairs.

* * *

"What are you doing?" Keith grumbled at him as soon as he arrived back to their sleeping headquarters, back to take his bow and his rifle together with a couple of extra layers for the cold.

"I'm going to make sure you don't get killed, what else you think." Lance didn't falter under Keith's deadly glare; he was already used to it, so he glared back.

"I don't need your help." Keith hissed at him, fastening the belt holding his knife around his hips.

"Yes you do; its mayhem outside, now shut up and let me go with you." Lance huffed back at him, putting on a thick, knitted sweater and then going for his jacket.

Keith huffed. _"Fine"_

He took a moment to fasten up his fingerless gloves and tie his red bandanna around his nose and mouth before talking again.

"You better not be slowing me down." He grumbled, sending another stink-eye to Lance before stomping off, making Lance scramble to pick up a few other things before going after him with a roll of his eyes.

"We'll see who's slowing down who." Lance grumbled under his breath.

For a moment, he wondered why exactly he was so weak to his stupid mullet.

* * *

They quickly walked down the wet streets to the direction where all the ruckus came from, trying their best to avoid the biggest puddles of water in a last try to keep the water from eating up the soles of their new shoes too much.

Lance tried to calm down the trembling of his teeth as he fought the cold, tightening the black mask he had around his mouth to filter the fumes caused by the water while he sent another glare to the back of Keith's head.

He was walking in front of him, pace quick as if he was purposely trying to lose Lance behind; and once upon Lance would have believed that was exactly what was happening but now he knew better, he knew _Keith_ better, and he knew this was just the pace he used when he was in a hurry to get things done.

Lance didn't understand Keith's reasoning behind his sudden need to defend the bullied, but there had be a good reason, right? A good reason for them to be out in the middle of the night in a city crawling with monsters, streets and walls still wet from the acid rain from earlier, without half of their team and their very useful tech to see through the night and that usually helped them not encounter any monsters head on, specially Lizards.

Lizards per se weren't hard to kill, or too strong, but they were one of the trickiest mother fuckers out there. They changed the color of their skin to mix with their surroundings, and walked on the walls and ceiling, you know, like a lizard. They also loved to appear from behind you and kill you off in one swoop so if you let them sneak up on you, you were done for.

All that without mentioning that they were like, really really scary up-close; with their black long tongue, big pointy teeth and their long, bony limbs. Just like any other monster really, but Lance still found himself shivering at the thought.

Because of all this Lance's senses were on over drive, trying to distinguish any sounds that didn't come from the battlefield up-front, squinting his eyes through the darkness trying to pay attention to his surroundings in case anything moved and hoping Keith did the same, panic wanting to crawl up his throat.

But he couldn't let his panic win, not now or ever. If he panicked, he was as good as dead.

They finally arrived close enough to the place to start crouching behind walls and hide from both the monsters running wildly and the people shooting them dead up front.

Per Lance's suggestion they went up the emergency stairs of a building close-by before entering and taking a look through one of the windows inside, examining the situation below them.

It was like a battlefield, and they seemed to be stuck in a stalemate as the single person hid behind a turned-over truck, vines and weeds growing all over it as the group shot restlessly both at the monsters running towards them from behind and to the truck a few meters in front of them, trying to keep them from escaping, or probably just straight-up kill the person behind it, as that one person kept shooting back at them wherever they could.

The first thing he noticed when he saw them was that they all were dressed up weird, the group were covered from head to toe with leather and weird painted-over purple helmet's that covered their whole head which made sense with the bikes sitting behind them; all of them looked tall and heavy, most probably men by their shape, and while Lance couldn't see very well who was the person behind the truck, he could see their frame was covered too with what seemed to be a big black poncho on them, making it hard to say a gender or a body shape, and their head was covered in what seemed like a mask, a creepy, white mask that somehow reminded him of the crawling monsters already piling up dead behind the group, already rising out a cloud of toxic gas around it.

"Holy shit..." Lance whispered, looking at the group and their big arsenal. "Do you see those freaking machine guns!? They're bigger than my torso! And they even have boxes filled with ammo!"

"No wonder they shoot without even thinking twice." Keith grumbled, looking from the big group to the other side, where they can barely see the person hidden behind that dismantled truck.

"I wonder where they got those... The poor dude only has like, a nine millimeters against that horde too..."

"We don't have time to be admiring their guns!" Keith huffed in desperation, taking out his sword. "Whatever, you look after my back, I'm going in."

He stood up and Lance jumped up with a squeak, tugging his shirt to make him sit back down and hide under the window-still.

" _Wait wait wait wait wait,_ what do you think you're doing?" Lance asked, feeling the panic rise to his voice.

"I'm going down there to help the dude behind the truck, what else do you think!?" Keith hissed back at him.

"Are you crazy!? They'll shoot you as soon as they see you, and even if you get to the truck, you'll just be stuck behind it like that dude, just even _more useless_ without a gun!" Lance hissed back at him, and Keith winced, body relaxing on his seat enough for Lance to let the shirt off his grip.

"...You're right." Keith frowned, looking back out into the fray and trying to hide an embarrassed blush creeping up his cheeks behind his hair. Cute.

"What do you suggest we do then?" Keith snapped him out of his musings, and Lance looked out, thinking for a moment.

"Well... If you ask me, there's probably more than one Lizard in that building over there, waiting for them to get distracted before jumping on." He pointed at the building behind the group, it looked innocuous enough. "I don't see that they have killed any yet, and we both know they're pretty common on this city..." Lance mused, noticing the way Keith looked back at him, hanging onto his every word with bright eyes, and he tried to not to melt under the intense stare.

He snapped his head back around, watching out the window intently and trying to concentrate again. "So maybe if we, like, try to distract them enough for the Lizards to jump on the opportunity and distract them enough so _we_ can grab the stranger and leave them all to the monsters it can work, or... something like that." Lance felt his own face warm up a little against the biting cold, scratching the back of his head as he felt overly conscious under Keith's stare.

"That's... Actually not a bad idea." Keith slowly raised his eyebrows, staring at him in pleasant surprise. "But what do we do to distract them exactly? Do I go down there after all?" Keith frowned in thought.

"Nope! No. Don't go down there or you'll be attacked by lizards too, we can uhh..." Lance looked around them, touching his pockets as he thought of what he had on him, and his eyes fell to a box full of empty glass bottles on a corner, deeper in the house.

Lance smirked, eyes shining with an idea.

"Hey Keith, you still got that flask with you?"

* * *

* * *

They only got enough for one shot, so they both decided to keep all their bases covered.

Keith went outside and hid between the buildings, close enough to the armed group as to throw them the Molotov bomb he and Lance made in a hurry, but he had to wait for Lance's signal, as he kept watch on their shooting patterns and waited for a moment their shooting was lax enough for Keith to not to get shot right away to give the signal.

_"And Keith?"_ Lance had called out his name just as he was about to cross the door, making Keith turn around with a raised eyebrow.

_"...be careful out there."_ Lance looked at Keith, an intense look on his eyes that held things Keith couldn't decipher.

Until some kind of recognition shined on his eyes and Lance snapped out of it, turning around looking back through the window again.

_"E-Especially when you talk to that dude hiding behind the truck."_ Lance continued. _"We don't know who they are or why they're being chased, or if they're even still sane. So... Expect the worse."_

Keith drank in the way Lance looked, arms crossed around him, eyebrows together in worry, and then he nodded, turning around.

_"I always do."_ He stated before walking off.

Somehow that scene kept repeating itself over and over Keith's mind, even thought he knew that he should be a hundred percent in the present, in what he was doing, as he turned on the lighter and light up the rag on the bottle, somehow Lance has been... _Weird_ since the day before.

Since he told everyone he was going away.

Lance kept looking at him in a certain way, and saying things that make his head swim, and doing sweet, kind things for him with a soft smile because he didn't want Keith to be cold during the night or run out of gasoline on his way to the northern city and... Keith doesn't know what to think of it all. Keith doesn't _want_ to think of what it all means.

This is not the time, or the place, not now or any time soon and it will stay that way so long as he keeps searching. So there's no point to any of it.

He's going to do this, and then he's going to rescue the mystery person behind the truck, and then he's going to make them tell him _why the fuck did they come from the freaking dead zone._

_"Now!"_ Lance's voice came from the walkie-talkie on his waist, and without even thinking twice he went out and threw the flaming bottle on their direction with all his strength.

The group jolted, surprised by the presence of someone else beside them, and then noticing the projectile crashing between them, right in the middle of the boxes full of ammo, and they screamed, scrambling away from them.

And just as Lance had predicted, the mayhem pounced on them without a second thought with at least three Lizards came down on them.

Keith immediately turned around and ran towards the truck without any time to lose, he didn't need to see it to know what kind of blood bath was happening, but the Lizards weren't going to entertain them for long if they were half as capable with those big guns on them.

He heard a loud shooting noise coming from on top of him, and looked at Lance, one floor on top of him, smoking rifle between his hands and keeping watch over him, killing any monster getting too close to his partner.

Keith couldn't help smiling to himself, no matter the conflicting feelings; there was no one else he'd rather have with him right now.

He didn't take long to arrive to the truck, running around it to find the pointy end of a staff pointing at his throat, the person holding it crouched and ready to fight.

He raised his own hands in instinct, one hand still holding his katana upside down, examining the person in front of him.

They were well covered, a clunky armor making it impossible to see a fair body shape from under that black cape covering it; even through this distance it was hard to say what kind of body shape they had, but he still had hopes. Even if they weren't _him_ , he hoped this strange person could at least point him out to the right direction.

His instincts told him to bet on it, and he did.

Keith slowly moved his free hand and tugged at the red scarf over his mouth, halfway expecting to see a spark of recognition from the person after he uncovered his face.

"Who are you!?" The stranger asked, their voice came out warped from behind the metallic mask; crushing half of Keith's hopes and lightning up the other half.

"Listen, I don't know who you or those guys are but we don't have time before they stop being distracted! Just follow me if you want to live." He quickly explained, slowly stepping backwards, feeling the other's glare

"Fine, just don't try anything funny." They spat at him, retracting their weapon and keeping it at their side.

"Right back at you." He glared back, not one to let himself be intimidated, and then turned to give Lance a signal with his hand before starting to run once again, back into another set of streets with a last look at the big group already killing the last Lizard, some men were lying on the floor, while some others pointed at them as they ran away.

He cursed under his breath and picked up the pace while keeping an eye on the stranger, going directly to where they should meet up with Lance and then make their way back to the underground, that is if the big group of assholes weren't still behind them, they couldn't let them figure out their town's basement, though he didn't thought that would stop them from getting out of the city anyways, seeing as they just exploded their way in.

"Why are you doing this?" The stranger suddenly asked, Keith could feel their inquisitive eyes directly on them.

Keith knew what they meant, if you helped a stranger down the street being hunted down like this person was just because you're 'kind' you're naïve and stupid and nature's selection should've got rid of you a long time ago.

"I did it because I want to know." He answered. "You came from the dead zone, didn't you!?"

The way the stranger stiffened was all the answer Keith needed.

"I'm searching for someone who went there a long time ago, and I want to know why and how you were even there." Keith looked at the person, eyes intense and trying to make his next point to come across. "And I won't let you go until you answer my questions."

_You're my prisoner now, and I will follow you until you give me what I want._

The person looked to front of them, if they were pensive, scared or mad he didn't know; that mask didn't let on much.

"I..."

_"Keith!"_

The stranger had begun to talk, but Lance suddenly appeared right in front of them, right from inside an alley, and as if they were moving on instinct, the stranger instantly hit him with their staff on his head, quickly hitting him again on his legs until he was lying on the floor, groaning in pain.

"Stop right there!" The stranger yelled, directing the pointy end of the staff towards his throat.

" _Stop it!_ Stop, He's with me!" Keith interfered, jumping in between them and making the stranger step away from Lance, who whined and massaged his head as Keith helped him up, tears on his eyes.

"Are you ok?" Keith asked, feeling bad about the awful purple bruise on his jaw.

"What the heck is wrong with this dude!?" He yelled, pointing at the stranger "Keith, I thought you made sure he wasn't some weirdo before taking him!"

"I am certainly _not_ a weirdo!" The stranger snapped up, hand on their chest as if feeling personally insulted. "He never even told me he was working with someone!"

They pointed back at Keith, making Lance turn his face around towards Keith with a gasp, eyes betrayed as he held his cheek with a hand.

"Are you serious, dude!? You didn't even mention me!?"

Keith looked from Lance to the stranger and right back, shrugging. "Sorry, I forgot."

Lance sputtered for a moment. "You _forgot_!?" He squeaked.

"Whatever, we don't have time for this; let's go before they find us!" He beckoned them to follow him, going back to running towards the direction of the underground station.

He didn't know if Hunk and Pidge decided to wait for them but the three of them could fit on his bike if the truck was gone, something like _'little space on his bike for three'_ wasn't going to stop them from doing it anyways.

"I can't believe this, forgetting about me, who do you think covered your asses as you went in and out of that mess full of monsters!? Seriously, no respect..." Lance grumbled under his breath, directing a stink-eye to the stranger beside him as they went.

Keith ignored him and the small pit of guilt on his stomach, concentrating once again on the moment at hand.

It didn't take much longer for a person from the group of hunters to appear right behind them again, fast and agile on top of their motorcycles; calling reinforcement behind them and shooting at the three of them, making them all duck in between two other buildings and run for their lives.

"Fucking hell!" Lance cursed out loud, echoing Keith's exact thoughts as they started to snake around the buildings, the group hot on their tail and gunshots echoing loud behind them.

"What did you even _do_ to them!?" Lance was freaking out, looking at the stranger with a suspicious face, probably wondering if he was running alongside a serial murderer.

"They want to get rid of me because I know about the only thing that can put a stop to their vile plans." They answered, looking intensely out to the front.

Lance gave the stranger a deadpan look.

"You know what? Forget it, but you're definitely explaining yourself when we get out of this!" Lance hissed.

"Agreed." Keith gave the stranger a pointed look, but before anyone could say any more the group appeared back on their motorcycles behind them, and some other two a few meters in front of them, shooting at them again and making them all duck inside a building.

Keith prayed with all his might that they didn't find any monsters as they ran right through it and went out the back door, letting a breath out as they went out the back door safely and ran through a few more alleyways until they found themselves back at the main road but...

...

Keith didn't know which main road was this.

"Where are we? I don't recognize any of it." Keith slowly stopped, turning around and trying to find anything recognizable under the darkness.

Lance and the stranger came to a stop behind him, both panting loudly and Lance even held himself with hands on his knees.

"Oh man, all this running is killing me..." He said between pant’s, trying to calm his breathing, which came out like white fog against the cold air.

A shrill scream cut through the air, high pitched, inhuman, and all of them felt their faces drain at the sound of it.

"Lance, where are we?" Keith snapped again, still high with adrenaline.

"Fuck, Right!" Lance stood back up straight, looking at their surroundings and trying to find any road signs. "Ok uhh... Give me a second...!"

"You guys even have any idea where to go!?" The stranger complained between pants, the desperation taking over.

"We're going to an underground parking lot where I left my bike." Keith frowned, going back to walking to the general direction where he thought it was. "From there we can get out of the city through some tunnels and go back to a town not far from here where we came from."

"We're going back to town?" Lance perked up, looking at Keith in that weird way that always leaves him distracted afterwards.

"Yes" he bit out, feeling irritation bubble up to the surface. "There's no other way right now, this city is too dangerous right now."

"You don't want these people following you back to your town." The stranger warned. "We better make sure they aren't following us first."

"Over here!" A voice screamed in the distance, accompanied with the loud noise of a motorbike.

"Fuck!" The stranger cursed, looking back at them.

_"Lance!"_ Keith snapped.

"Alright, uhh the bridge's on that side, so this way!" Lance pointed to their left and started running, and without even thinking twice Keith followed him, the stranger hot on his heels.

His legs burned from the effort, and his lungs burned with the ice cold air going in and out in heavy breaths but they all ran with all their might’s, ducking inside buildings and following Lance's lead until eventually, the streets started being familiar and Keith too knew where they were going.

Keith smirked to himself with a strange pride, as he was glad Lance set them on the right direction and it was with surprise that he noticed Lance smirking too, a triumphant smile.

They were close, just a few more meters and they'll be there.

They just needed to lose those assholes still hot on their tail before going inside.

Sadly their smiles were short-lived, as once again their path was taken over not by motorcyclists, but by a group of monsters running towards them, tongues out and movements fast and jagged, excited for their cornered prey and making then stop cold on their way, turning around and running back, trying to find a way out.

"Crawlers!" One of the big men screamed from the top of his lungs, as a big, black disgusting shape swiftly moved across the floor towards them, knocking the bikes on their side and sending everyone on disarray.

Keith felt his blood run cold at the sight of it, and he was sure the two behind him felt the same with the horrible screams coming from the men in front of them.

_"Get this off me!"_

_"Duck!"_

_"Shoot that damn thing!"_

_"I can't! I can't!"_

_"Move!"_

Suddenly he felt a hand tugging his arm, making him snap his head towards Lance.

"Let's go!" Lance's face was serious, composed, his eyes scared but Keith felt himself come back into his body when he saw them.

Lance tugged on his arm, urging him to go inside a store building, and they all blocked the door behind them.

"My goodness, what do we do!?" The stranger asked aloud.

"It's ok, we're actually pretty close to where we need to go, just a couple blocks over there." Lance reassured, pointing at the general direction to where they were going before being surrounded by the monsters. "We just need to figure out a way out of here."

"But... How? There's _Crawlers_ out there." The stranger shivered at the thought, looking towards the door with apprehension and listening to the screeches and shooting noises.

"We are completely surrounded by them." Keith thought out loud; frown on his face getting worse. "Both the monsters and those hunters."

"I mean..." Lance looked between the two of them, face unaffected. "We could always jump to the next building and do out the back from there, or maybe travel from building to building?" He shrugged, getting doubtful stares from the other two.

"No way, those things will be out there and intercept us before we can get inside the next store!" The Stranger said.

"Yeah, but they're not that many as of right now; we might need to kill a couple but we'll be ok as long as we move fast before they call out for more and gather out there."

"It’s too dangerous; even if we get to the next building we’ll be overrun by them in the next one." Keith grumbled, and Lance let out a big sigh.

"Listen, I know we’re in a bad situation, but we need to get out of here _somehow_.” Lance insisted, looking between both of them. “The faster we get out, the better so those guys out there can keep the monsters busy while we run” He decided, holding the rifle that was lying across his back and holding it between his hands with a thoughtful face.

Keith looked at him for a moment, before he suddenly huffed, a little smile bending upwards the corners of his mouth. "...I guess you're right, but we do need to plan this right."

_“Here is Yellow Mango to Blue Berry and slash or Cherry Red, do you hear me? I repeat, this is Yellow Mango, come on in! Can you hear me? Over!”_ A voice coming from Lance’s hip interrupted them, and Lance scrambled up to search between his pockets, grabbing the walkie-talkie with a smile and tears in his eyes before answering.

“Hunk! My man, you’re there!” Lance laughed loudly, gripping the small radio between his hands tightly “We can hear you, over!” Lance screamed at it, it took a second before another voice came on through.

_“Fucking finally, where the heck are you guys!? we’ve been trying to reach you two for hours!”_ Pidge’s voice came from the radio this time, probably taking it right from Hunk’s hands even though she has her own. _“And please use the fucking code-names Blue; we have actual people close-by that can hear!”_

Keith took the walkie-talkie from Lance before he got into another argument with Pidge about the fact that _‘Hunk’_ was already a nickname. “This is Cherry Red, we’re trapped inside the shoe store two blocks away from the parking lot and we’re surrounded by monsters on all directions, over.”

_“Ahh got it, we’re on our way over there right now, we'll be there in five, get out the back door and meet us at the West 5th Avenue, we'll yell you when were close enough for you guys to come out, over.”_

“Ohoho sweet! We’re saved!” Lance excitedly fist-pumped into the air; a big and infectious smile taking over his face.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves yet." Keith interrupted Lance's celebration. "We still need to survive getting out and into the truck without letting any monsters getting ahead of us."

"Don't be such a wet blanket now, Mullet." Lance slumped sown and grumbled at him.

The stranger laughed under their breath, visibly more relaxed than before with their light behavior. "He's right, we cannot celebrate just yet, not until we are safely out of this place but... thank you uhh _Lance_. For keeping our hopes up" His name sounded weird on their tongue, making it sound like _'Lonce'_ somehow.

Keith knew it must have been uncomfortable to say it for them, especially after having only met the two of them mere moments prior; he had been the same when he met Lance as well, but he felt the smile and the gratitude coming from them.

“Anytime" Lance winked at them, and then turned back to Keith with a smirk. "Ready to go, partner?"

Keith smiled; once again glad Lance was with him. He was always quick to bounce back, to keep his cool and not let any bad situation deter him. He should've known it wasn't going to be any different this time.

"Alright, lead the way Sharpshooter." Keith patted on Lance's shoulder, returning his smirk with renewed confidence.

They three of them quickly made their way towards the back door of the store, taking their time to properly readjust their clothes and covering their mouths and noses before taking in their positions behind it as Lance held the doorknob and both Keith and The Stranger got in position with their weapons as Lance received the heads up from Hunk to finally come out, all of them taking in a deep breath before finally opening it.

Keith and the stranger made quick work of the monsters closer to the door with swift strikes to their heads, thankful for the bandanna around his nose and mouth as the poignant odor coming from the creatures let itself known as soon as he cut the head off.

Lance covered for their backs with his rifle, as the shooting sounds coming from the group still echoed through the streets covering his, but he was still careful with each shot, his bullets accounted for and definitely not infinite compared to the hunters.

They all slowly made their way out of the alleyway towards the street Pidge had told them about, a couple of monsters gaining on them.

As soon as they get out onto the street, one of them jumps on top of The Stranger, pinning them against the floor with a loud thud.

"No!" Keith screams at it, slashing its head before it could bite their pestilent fangs on The Stranger and making another puff of putrid air fall onto them.

"Wait, Keith! No!" Lance shot the last one between the eyes and ran to help The Stranger out without thinking twice, pushing the big, creepy body off of them and holding their lifeless body in between his arms.

Keith felt awful and powerless, not being able to do anything to evade this.

"Hey, dude, are you ok!?" He tried shaking them but there was no response as their heavy mask slipped off and fell into the ground, showing the face of a beautiful woman with dark skin and white hair bunched up around her head, unconscious, making him gasp out loud.

"It's a girl? A beautiful girl!?" Lance wondered aloud, awed at her face.

"Is she ok!?" Keith asked, not daring to let his guard down at their situation, a few more monsters running towards them in the distance.

Lance snapped out of his wonder, verifying her pulse and getting closer to hear her breathing.

"I think so...? It doesn't seem like she breathed in the toxic gas! She just seems pretty much passed out." Lance frowned.

Just at that moment a big truck appeared in the street, stopping just some meters behind them, driven by none other than Pidge.

"Come on losers; get on the back we're leaving _now_!" Pidge hit the outside of the driver's door.

"The door's already open, hurry!" Hunk appeared with a wave behind her, hurrying them up.

"Lance, take her inside first, I'll be right behind you!" Keith ordered at Lance and he nodded in response, putting his other arm under the girl's knees and raising her up between his arms.

"Oh my god, she's heavy, her armor is heavy...!" Lance grumbled out, face red as he quickly walked towards the inside of the truck with Keith hot on his tail, sword raised and ready to attack any monsters that got too close.

Lance settled let the girl lie on the border of the back door before he opened the door and jumped in and carried her between his arms again, settling deeper inside as Keith finally jumped in and hit the wall of the truck, making Pidge hit on the pedal with all her might and making them jerk back into movement, just as the creatures arrived and gave a desperate chase to the truck.

The truck jerked from side to side with the broken state of the streets, making Keith's stomach lurch with the movement.

"Fuck, they're hot on our tails behind us!" Lance yelled over the noise of the rattling truck, the passed out stranger still between his arms as he held them and himself and tried to keep them as still as he could with all the jerking from the truck.

"Yeah, and they're not the only ones." He pointed further away, a small group of bikers following them, shooting at their truck and some bullets landing on the monsters in front of them, who kept running after them unaffected.

"Fuck, Keith, what do we do!?" Lance asked him with a frown and Keith stayed thinking for a while, looking around them and through all the boxes and generators that Pidge and Hunk somehow sneaked here from the mall, with the hopes that he'll find something useful.

That's when his eyes landed on his own bike as he just now noticed it was parked inside the truck, taking over most of the space, tied to the side and shaking alongside the truck’s movements.

"That's it!" He snapped out suddenly.

"What?" What is it!?" Lance asked.

Keith took out the gallon full of gasoline that Lance gave him from the storage compartment on the bike. "Do you think you can shoot at this after I throw it towards them? If it explodes it can create a fire strong enough for them to have to stop following us."

"W-what!? Are you crazy, _that's_ how you’re gonna use the gas I gave to you now!?" Lance screeched.

"Can you do it or not!?" Keith snapped at him, getting a big reluctant groan out of Lance.

"Fine!" he scrambled to get his beat up rifle from a few feet away from him, taking a moment with all the movement from the truck, and Keith went deeper in to tell the other two about their plan so they could get ready for it.

Hunk’s face went green and he fixed the seat-belt across his chest and gripped onto the seat tightly with his hands, Pidge simply limited herself to pat his arm absentmindedly and gave him a vague nod as she concentrated on the road in front of her, probably already calculating her way out.

Keith walked back and stood beside the back door, gripping one door as he held the gasoline with the other, looking expectantly at Lance.

“Are you ready!?” he yelled as he saw Lance was checking his rifle’s ammunition.

“ok, ok! Fine, geez! I’m ready!” He nervously prepped the rifle into position between his arms, careful of the unconscious woman he just let lying beside him as he aligned the rifle with his sight. “Whenever you’re ready, pal!”

Keith nodded and took a last look behind them, the couple of monsters that were following him were nowhere in sight, probably killed by the band of motorcyclists that were now even closer behind them and the one in front, who seemed to be their leader, snarled at him when their eyes met, that man's helmet was nowhere to be seen and showing a wrecked face and a patch over their right eye, blood running down his arm from an open wound.

He just decided to ignore it, and pointed his throw right at the center of them all, and threw it with all his strength, Lance’s gunshot quickly followed him, and without further ado Keith scrambled to close the doors as the explosion boomed behind them, the sound waves shaking their ride, and just before he finished closing the other door, he swears he saw the leader between the flames, stopping mere feet away from the fire, and glaring directly at him.

He closed the door with a last kick, shoving away that last image from his mind just as the truck swerved to the side once again. He then walked back towards where Lance was still sitting down, sighing with relief as the strange woman was still lying on the ground by his lap.

“You did great.” He smiled at Lance, patting his shoulder and feeling the weight of his own tiredness fall all over his body with the immediate danger almost gone

“Thanks” Lance sighed, whipping sweat from his forehead and looking back at the girl. “I just wish she had seen it man, who would’ve thought we were saving such a beauty?”

Keith rolled his eyes, irritation growing on him. “Shut up, just carry her over there, she’ll be more comfortable.” He pointed at a set of crates on the back, where they put a pair of pillows and a blanket and sometimes they used it to nap in between missions, especially the ones with long drive hours.

“Alright, alright. Just help me out here; she’s _way_ heavier than she looks.” Lance rolled his eyes, grabbing her shoulders and stopping in silence for a moment, before he winced and looked at Keith with begging eyes “ _Please_ don’t tell her I said that.”

“Sure, your secret’s safe.” He grabbed onto her legs and they both carried her onto the make-shift bed, a weird, metallic sound coming from her chest got his attention when the truck gave a turn to the side.

“What’s that sound?” Keith frowned.

“Hmm? What’s what?” Lance hummed.

Keith looked down on her and a glint coming from her chest called onto his attention, and he proceeded to open up the poncho covering her chest.

“Hey dude, that’s not—that’s not right!” Lance shrieked, but Keith ignored him in favor of the large collar lying on top of her chest-plate armor, a couple of dog tags attached to it with names inscribed on it and Keith gasped at their sight, grabbing them and taking a closer look.

“Wait, what are those? Is that her name?” Lance asked, looking over his shoulder to read but Keith’s hands started trembling.

“What… Why does she have these… why…” Keith’s voice came out weak and shaky, as he looked from in between the dog tags and her.

“Keith…?” Lance called his name, more worried than curious now at the shaken sight of him.

“Why do you have these!?”He asked again, this time louder as he scrambled up and grabbed her by her collar, shaking her unconscious figure roughly. “Why do you have Shiro’s tag? Where did you get it!?” He screamed at her, mind blurred with an endless streams of questions, asking why, and how, and why _her_.

“Hey—dude, stop it! Hey!” Lance stepped between him and the girl, grabbing his shoulders and pushing him away.

Lance then grabbed onto his face, making him keep eye-contact with him.

“She’s unconscious dude.” He stated eyes serious. “She can’t answer; we have to take her to a medic.”

Keith breathed harshly, eyes searching Lance’s for… for something he didn’t know, but he just limited to push him away, turning around to look the other way, frustration and anger boiling under his skin.

He felt the truck turning and taking a dive downwards, signaling them entering the tunnels towards the underground.

He took a deep breath.

“Fine, but this isn’t over.” He turned to Lance, glaring at the unconscious figure behind him. “I want answers, and she’s going to give them to me wherever she wants it or not.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading so far!! leave a comment and tell me what you think, for now, here have some fun facts I can never get explained in the story:
> 
> 1 – Before Pidge came along and invented her goggles and Geiger counter, they had to rely on their five senses to not to get sneaked upon by Lizards, Lance was the best one at detecting them!  
> 2- Organized from the strongest to weakest to cold, here’s how the characters stand: Keith, Allura, Hunk, Pidge, Lance. (Lance is weak af to cold)  
> 3- Monster’s heat signature is high during the night and they prefer to roam around the streets, but their heat signature is colder during the day and they prefer to stay inside buildings, so it is safer for people to move during the day.  
> 4- There is indeed different kind of monsters, and people have different names for them, some call the monsters “creepers” or “the rotten” and many other nsfw insults. There’s probably a scientific name for them, but no one knows it because after the war, communication lines were down, but many are sure that they started coming from the dead zones and were caused by the high radiation on these places.   
> 5- There are indeed different types of them. I Imagine the crawlers like children walking on all four limbs, but bony and extremities a bit too long, their skin is black and rotten and their head is upside down and their eyes are empty and white with the screaming souls of the damned to die by their hands, and they’re also the trickiest ones to kill due to their. They’re also quick and creepy and yucky, so yeah I imagine them all being pretty nightmarish.  
> 6- Like zombies, monsters can only be killed if you go directly for their brain/head, but their blood is toxic so it they let out some disgusting and toxic air around them so it’s recommended to not to kill them in short range of yourself, since if their fluids/gas get to you they can cause some burns and other things like dizziness, headache, or even in worse situations, blindness, hair loss, etc.  
> 7- List of monsters so far with their deadliness levels and killability levels rated with 5 stars:  
> Lizards:   
>  Danger: * * * * *  
> Toughness to Kill: *  
> Bulls:  
>  Danger: * * * *  
> Toughness to Kill: * * *  
>  Creepers:   
>  Danger: * * * * *  
> Toughness To Kill: * * * * *


	5. The Rest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They arrive back to town and have to take the stranger into medical custody, a lot of things come to light and at the end, with Keith having nowhere else to go, he takes him in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whoa! finally finished this chapter, i must admit that i wrote LOT'S of it in like, two days and knew exactly what i wanted to write for the last scene but then i spent most of the week not writing and getting distracted instead, but I'm glad I finally finished it for today! i hope you enjoy found family and friendship and lance gushing about how much he likes Keith because that's what you're getting today!  
> There are no real trigger warning except they spend the first half in a hospital-like building, and then they walk through the streets in the dark, but please do feel free to tell me what you think!

They arrived back in town at dawn.

Keith had offered to keep a watchful eye on the road behind them as to not to miss anyone following them, but thankfully there was no one who saw them get into their underground lot, or get out the city through the tunnels under the dark veil of night.

It didn't pass over Lance the way Keith also kept an attentive eye on the beautiful girl laying on their usual napping spot, still unconscious by the way, and it was obvious he was anxious to interrogate her and get his answers. Meanwhile, Lance was also anxious for answers, but from Keith.

Ever since his strange outburst against the unconscious girl he had been silent, and extra broody as he occasionally stared at the dog tags in his hand, Lance couldn't help having questions about what was all of that about, like why did Keith react like that? Does this have to do with the reason he's been traveling so much? Does that mean that he will stay if this girl gives him answers or that he will go away hand-in-hand with this hot stranger as soon as she wakes up? And most importantly, _who the hell is this Shiro guy?_

So they spent most of their way back in uncomfortable silence, with Keith going through the sunroof window to take a look from time to time, and Hunk coming back from the cabin to check up on them.

Thankfully it didn't take that long, and before they knew it, Pidge was calling them out to keep guard outside as the truck gradually found itself surrounded by monsters charging at it, literally, as some Bulls kept running towards them trying to charge against their ride with their stupid horns, those were rather small, their disgusting skin somewhat red and their back legs were short and had hooves and the front ones were longer and creepy like the rest of them, but they were fast and aggressive and hella problematic as both Lance and Keith did their best to keep them away from their truck.

Pidge kept swerving from side to side through the old neighborhood's road, already knowing the best ways to evade the monsters and going on full speed without slowing down for a moment, knowing very well that if she did, they would get swarmed within minutes.

Finally they saw the walls raising in the far distance, and Hunk busied himself radioing the town as to get them to welcome them and activate The Net as soon as they got close, also reporting they had a knocked-out unknown woman on board that could have or not breathed in toxic fumes from a dead monster head-on and to have paramedics ready.

The city was surrounded patches of woods and the front looked directly towards the dead, crumbled neighborhood they were crossing through right now, as it parted into different, old and cracked road leading pretty much anywhere. Lance never felt any gladder to see it rise on the horizon.

Both Keith and Lance kept a tense watch from the truck's roof, knees low to maintain their balance and ready to kill any monsters who got too close or planned to jump on, which were way more than Lance wanted to admit; he ended up using Hunk's machete to get rid of most of them, not wanting to use any more bullets or lose any more arrows.

Finally, they saw The Net getting closer; a perimeter of fancy-looking metal tubes sticking up from the ground, starting to glow with an ominous blue light as they got closer, and they both grabbed onto the sunroof window’s border as they finally crossed the landmarks, looking awed at the sight of the metal tubes releasing an electric charge in between them, surrounding the city with some kind of blue shield of electricity meters before they reached it.

Lance never got tired of seeing The Net at work, sadly it took too much electric energy to keep it working all the time, but it did the work of maintaining most monsters away from the town wherever they needed to get anyone in, and let them wary of getting too close to it. He was thankful their town got through the trouble of installing it some years ago, it was worth it.

They soon were assisted by shooters from inside the wall, who killed off any monsters that crossed The Net before it got completely activated and that were still running behind them. Both Keith and Lance promptly went inside the truck again, not wanting to get shot by accident.

Still, Lance didn't miss the first rays of sunlight appearing on the horizon as he slipped in, dismayed at the knowledge of spending two nights in a row without any decent sleeping.

"We're almost there!" Hunk told them from the front seat, and both Keith and Lance took a seat close-by where the beautiful girl still laid unconscious and waited.

Just by looking at Keith's grumpy face, he knew this was going to be a long morning,

* * *

They quickly were intercepted by someone from the paramedic staff as soon as they crossed the doors; they took a look at the girl and since she seemed not-actively-dying type of fine, gave them the indications to take her to the medical tents on their way to the deposits.

Both Keith and Lance stayed to help her get signed in, meanwhile Hunk and Pidge went to manifest their findings at their superiors and leave everything at the deposits, promising to be back for them real soon.

Lance should've expected that explaining to the doctors that they didn't know this person, or their name, or age or health history wouldn't be easy, but everything got a turn for the worse when they found a high radioactive lecture from her, prompting the doctors to also get the both of them checkups as to ensure they weren't exposed to whatever this girl was.

Lance swears he and Keith lost a few years off their lived with that scare, as the doctors proceeded to take some blood samples and wash them off throughout before letting them rest in a room only wearing a hospital gowns as they waited for their results.

Lance never expected that spending time together in a closed-off room while half-naked with Keith would be so awkward as it really was, Keith was specially mean and grumpy and refused to talk to Lance ever since he stopped him from almost maiming an unconscious pretty-woman, but Lance hadn't expect that incident to build such a wall in between them, he hadn't considered it a real fight and was surprised to see Keith reacting like it was, Lance even tried to talk to him a few times to try and solve that tension, but Keith just kept ignoring him.

Finally after a couple of very uncomfortable hours, the doctors let them out.

Thankfully for everyone they weren't full of radiation, and thankfully, the girl technically _wasn't_ either, but the outside of her armor had been heavily exposed so the doctors had to get rid of it quickly together with any clothes of theirs that got into contact, and Lance just knew the pretty girl was going to rip them a new one about that when she woke up for sure.

What he wasn't thankful for was the fact that all of this took a long time to figure out, and by the time he and Keith had been released it was already noon.

Pidge and Hunk did appear again a little after they were let out, but by that time it just meant that they had taken a little too longer than normal to manifest all their findings. Thankfully they had brought the both of them some snacks for them to eat as they were both so hungry they both were snappier than normal with each other. After that, the four of them sat down on the waiting room, expectant of news about the unknown woman they bought with them.

After a couple hours, the doctors finally came out and told them the girl had passed out from anemia caused by malnourishment, all that together with over exhaustion. She wasn't going to wake up any time soon since she had pushed herself too far through the night; the doctors had to give her tons of liquids and attention, and that they had to let her rest for another day or two.

Lance instantly felt bad about all the running they had pushed her through the entire night; although something told Lance that Keith wasn't feeling the same with the petulant frown he wore when the doctors told him there was no way he was to interrogate her until she was more stable.

"What's the big deal anyways?" Pidge frowned at him, crossing her arms across her chest as she looked Keith up and down with her analyzing stare. "You barely knew of her existence a few hours ago, what does she know about that's so important that you cannot wait a day or two for her to _not_ pass out in the middle of telling you?"

Lance winced at her bluntness, and looked warily at Keith, half-expecting him to snap at her and get into a fight, but to his surprise he only looked pensively at the floor for a moment, before finally looking up at Lance with a weird, sad and intense look that was somewhat defeated, before directing his eyes back at Pidge.

"I... For the past two years, I've been looking for someone. He... disappeared after he was chosen to accompany two scientists from Main City to investigate the Dead Zones and their real ties to the monsters infesting the earth." He started talking, and the face of recognition that lighted up Pidge's face didn't go unnoticed by Lance.

"...But after months of daily communications he just... Stopped, and disappeared from the face of the earth. The last thing I knew was that he was staying at a town extremely close-by a dead-zone, but he hadn't permitted to say where exactly, so I've been traveling from town to town, staying in any that fit that description, searching and asking around for any clues to his whereabouts to no avail... All this time I've found nothing, until I found this on that girl earlier." He took out the dog tags he had found around the girl's neck hours ago from his pocket, giving it to her.

"Takashi Shirogane is the name of the person I've been looking for, and she _had_ this, she... She must know where he is, and if he's alive...." Keith frowned. "No, he _must_ be, she must've known him personally if she was carrying this around her neck, I know it."

He talked darkly, eyes lost in the distance, but Pidge just stared at the dog tags with a dumbfounded face.

"This... These names..." She spoke weakly, snapping Keith from his reverie.

"Yes, another reason why I know they're real is because the other tag has the name of another member of his crew, he had told me his name..."

"Matthew A. Holt.... This-- this is my brother..." She breathed out, voice broken and tears on her eyes, making everyone to turn to her.

"You're... Matt's your brother...?" Keith wondered out loud, eyes big with surprise as he took her in.

"Pidge...?" Hunk put an arm around her trembling shoulder, trying his best to be reassuring, but she just pushed him off, stomping towards the door to the emergency room, looking at the sleeping figure lying on a far bed of the unknown, beautiful woman they had rescued during the night, almost undistinguishable from the rest if it weren't for her white hair.

"She... She knows where he is-- we have to ask her, we have to ask her where my brother is...!" She started rambling, voice wet and shaky as she hit her fist against the door, getting some a few stink-eyes from the nurses inside.

Both Hunk and Lance hurried by her side, holding her shoulders reassuringly and trying to direct her away from the door.

"Pidge? Hey Pidge, it's ok, just as you said before there's no point in asking her now, she's unconscious...." Lance said to her on a hushed voice.

"He's been-- they've _both_ been missing for two years, Lance! Two fuck--ing years, you better than anyone must know how dangerous it is out there! They could be dying right now and I need to go rescue them!" She snapped at him, pushing them both away, but she seemed to snap out of it when Keith walked closer, putting a hand on her shoulder and looking her in the eyes.

"I know Pidge, I-- I _know_." His voice broke, an undecipherable feeling permeating it, but he maintained his composure.

"We're just... So fucking close...!" Pidge sobbed, breaking down as her eyes finally let the tears flow, and she suddenly hugged Keith, arms tightly around his waist as she cried some more against his shirt, slowly getting hugged back by him.

Lance never felt more useless, and he wished nothing but to be able to understand their pain and be able to help them somehow, and he knew Hunk felt the same.

"Hey guys, it's going to be ok. We will be back first thing tomorrow and keep an eye on her until she wakes up, alright...?" Lance proposed, walking slowly towards them with a weak smile.

"Yeah, I'm sure also wants to share her story too." Hunk said next, smile warmer and more reassuring than anything Lance could offer. "For now, we're all extremely tired from yesterday, so let's all take some time to rest so we can face that lady with a clear mind tomorrow, alright?"

Pidge sniffed out loud, raising her head to look tiredly at all of them before looking down at the floor in embarrassment.

"You guys are right; I'm sorry I screamed at you." She then gave the collar back to Keith, taking Matt's tag for herself and holding it against her chest before turning back at the other two.

"I'm tired and that makes me prone to emotional outbursts, we cannot hold an interrogation like that." She smirked to herself "You guys are right, let's all come back tomorrow with all our bearings."

Both Lance and Hunk smiled, squishing her in a group hug between them and adding Keith to the mix as they ignored getting a loud, annoyed groan in response from Pidge.

Keith just made a confused face, and even though he went rigid in between them he didn't really complain, limiting to awkwardly pat their shoulders.

Lance and Hunk knew better than to push it with these two though, so they let them go rather quickly before they all turned towards the general direction of the exit and slowly walking away.

"So we meet back here in the morning?" Hunk started. "9:00 AM is the time the visiting schedule starts."

"That's great, with everything that's happened up until now I'm not sure I can stand to see the dawn a third time in a row..." Pidge grumbled under her breath.

"I may have a problem though..." Keith hummed, thoughtful for a moment, waiting to cross the door leading them outside before continuing; Lance got surprised to see they got little time before sundown.

"I don't really have a place to stay through the night anymore, I gave away my room yesterday, remember? I doubt they'll give me one back tonight even if I start with the papers right now" Keith continued, getting everyone's attention back to the problem at hand.

"Oh that's easy to solve, just go stay with Lance." Pidge brushed off with a shrug, and Lance squawked.

"W-w-why me!? _You_ take him; you have a whole house with a lot of empty rooms for yourself!" He pointed accusingly at her, since her house was a workshop of sorts she got a lot of both space and useless stuff stored in there.

"Oh, Lance, you more than anyone knows how Hunk and I get when we get our hands in new tech to play with...!" She taunted him with a wink, making Lance groan at her.

Keith looked awkwardly between them before he started talking, shoulders slumped down.

"Sorry, I can find somewhere else if that...."

"No, no, no, no, no...!" Lance interrupted Keith before he finished that thought. "You can stay with me, it's alright."

"Are you sure...?" Keith frowned "looked pretty against it."

"M-me? Pshh! Nah, I'm fine! Everything's fine!" Lance squeaked out "Yup! Easy peasy, dude! You're welcome to stay as long as you want!" Lance tried to ignore his nerves, and the feeling of his own heart racing at the thought of Keith on his house, having dinner with him, sleeping on his bed--

"Great! Now that that's solved, see ya’ tomorrow guys!" Pidge turned around, taking a different road than them and waving behind her. "I'll call you if I know about any changes!"

"See ya guys, rest well!" Hunk followed her lead, waving at them before walking away, leaving them both alone and with an awkward silence hanging in between them.

Great.

"Alright so... You lead the way?" Keith said, uncomfortable, shrugging his own luggage over his shoulder, waiting for him and looking every bit as handsome as he did yesterday morning, even if he was tired.

Lance let out a big defeated sigh, turning away and finally leading them to his home.

* * *

They walked through the streets of their little town for a while, the good thing was that there was still light of day out, but the bad news was that it was slowly and constantly decreasing by the second, and Lance's house was really far away. Even when they took a transport that took them to the zone he lived in, pretty far back on the other side of their little town, it still left them pretty far away, so they had to walk the rest of the way.

The sun went down quickly, and the darkness consumed everything around them just as fast, even with the generators Pidge and Hunk got their hands on, there was no way they'd be able to connect them and illuminate the streets any time soon, so all they had were the weak candle lights coming from the buildings, and the occasional light from a car or bike passing-by.

Keith had left his bike inside the truck, which meant it was now inside the deposit it was left at, and they wouldn't have access to it until they would released their belongings back to them. It was hard to even leave with the little luggage they had in the first place, and Keith had to leave most of it back with his bike too.

The only bad thing of being part of the exploring teams was that their superiors kept a harsh eye on everything that gets in and out, making them leave a registry of everything they take with them out of the wall and the number of provisions they carry with them, and then when they're back they have to also manifest the number of provisions used during the trip so they can have accountability for everything they bring and use, and just after counting everything extra they brought with them and separated their provisions from their property and the new findings, is that they were given their stuff back, less an explorer takes some things for themselves and starts making profit off of selling the things they find from the outside, that's the job of the people in charge.

Hunk and Pidge had taken a whole lot of things from the mall even when they had to go back to the truck by themselves, and because of that the process was probably taking longer than normal. It makes him wonder how much they would’ve taken back if they had done it together, if they had done multiple trips, if that group of men and their guns hadn't thrown everything off course.

He wonder's when will they be able to go back there, if that group will still be there when they do.

He hopes they aren't.

They kept walking through the now dark streets, and the only thing that kept him somewhat relaxed was the fact that they had gotten close enough that they were entering his neighborhood, Lance knew these streets since childhood and he knew the people who lived around him in these convoluted, mismatched houses, and the women coming out and ushering the kids back inside their homes, and the group of old men playing domino a corner away from his house who cheerfully called his name and waved at him as he walked through.

Keith looked spooked about all of it though, looking at every single person as if they were about to get him, so Lance took pity on him.

"We're almost there" Lance reassured him with a small, tired smile. "It's that house over there." He pointed at a two store house in the middle of the next square, squished between another two buildings and some ratty iron stairs where on its side, connected directly to an iron gate that lead into the second floor that had a huge balcony, a candlelight glow from deeper inside illuminating it. The first floor was almost like a quaint cute house, a tiny garden surrounded by a fence that could almost be seen through the darkness of the night, as no one seemed to be inside it, but anything more than that was undecipherable in the dark.

"You live there? With your parents?" Keith raised his eyebrows, looking impressed at the big house but Lance just snorted, trying to ignore how stupidly happy he felt at the fact that Keith opened a conversation after such a long time of awkwardness since last night.

"Nah, they live down a few streets from here, this is more like.... A little apartment building. I share it with like, another man and an older woman who have each a room on their own..." Lance started to ramble, raising his left hand and counting his neighbors with his fingers "Oh! And there's a girl with a baby and another dude living upstairs. Not related, they each have a different room. Oh! but I promise the baby's crying can barely be heard from downstairs, so don't worry about the noise."

He kept on talking as he opened the gate downstairs, walking through the little garden and passing by two sets of bird cages with big parrots standing beside the door, rattling a little as the little birds got ready to sleep inside of them.

He opened the door and lead Keith inside, finding Keith's dumbfounded face hilarious.

Lance felt the same when he first walked in too; the place was so strangely.... Really pretty and taken care of, as the floor tiles were colorful and the doors and the stairs inside were made of dark wood, little knick-knacks decorated the walls and Lance couldn't help but feeling that this was the kind of house a really old, really religious old lady or grandma would live in.

Lance by-passed the stairs and walked over to another set of doors, also made of dark wood and with a window of colorful glass decorating it, opening it and leading Keith inside again with a flouring of his hand.

"You can leave the shoes by the door." He told him as he took his own shoes off and walked inside, going directly towards where he has left his makeshift oil lamp on the kitchen counter; which was basically a glass jar filled with oil, and a rug drenched in said oil twirled up tightly and going through a whole on the jar's lid. (And ok, when he made it he was tired from a run, and didn’t find any rope at hand so he grabbed the kitchen’s rag for it and he’s been regretting it ever since, HAPPY!?)

He lighted it up and let it illuminate the place softly, beckoning a very confused Keith closer, who kept looking at his surroundings with a face full of wonder.

"Sorry I can't give you a better welcome, but you know how we almost never get any electricity around here..." Lance shrugged guiltily with a small smile, trying to ignore the embarrassment at the pit of his stomach.

Keith knew how it was, and even if it wasn't on Lance's apartment, he would be spending his night surrounded by darkness.

He really hopes Pidge can bring in that big generator from the mall; it's kind of like a craving at this point.

"It's ok, I get it." Keith shrugged "Your house looks strangely comfy though, back on the dormitories I only had a tiny room I had to share." Keith turned around, looking at his surroundings with a small smile.

"Uh— Oh! Yeah, let me give you a small tour! So, over here we have the bathroom..." He gave two steps to the left, opening an iron door and walking inside. "I have a toilet, and-- Oh, good news! The water came earlier and the buckets are full!" Lance turned towards the tank filled with water, illuminating them with the lamp on his hand and feeling a smile take over his face, and he was kind of worried he would be left without water when he came back.

"I'll heat some up so we can clean up before sleeping, we need it." Lance winced, knowing they both were sweaty, and full of dirt.

"You don't have to, I don't want to make you waste it..."

Lance scoffed with a roll of his eyes. "Don't be stupid, I am not letting your dirty ass sleep on my house without a bath and a good dinner."

"Fine." Keith grumbled, crossing his arms and lying against the kitchen counter. Lance sighed.

"And uhh-- well, back on the tour, you're standing in the kitchen." He walked back out, waving his other hand in circular motions around them. "I know it's small, and I still need to connect the gas tank to cook but that's gonna be quick, and I have a refrigerator, with water and food." Right then, it occurred to him that they hadn't drank any water after the long walk, and that his mother would be ashamed of his poor hosting skills.

He opened it, taking a jug full of water and leaving the lamp back on the counter, taking a couple of glasses out and serving some water for them both.

"Don't worry I never put anything too perishable or melty in there." He nodded his head towards the refrigerator with a wink as he gave Keith his own glass, proceeding then to gulp down the glass of water. He was way thirstier than he thought.

He served them some more water, before taking the lamp and walking to the third and final room on the right.

"And well, here's the bedroom. Sorry it's kind of messy, not much fits here." He walked in, showing the plain bed and the desk trapped in the little space between the bed and the wall, full of clothes and Lance's belongings on top of it, and barely leaving any space to walk between in it and the bed, a TV was sitting on top of a dresser in front of it, right across from the door.

"You can leave your stuff around here, but I only have one bed, so uhh... I hope you're ok with sharing." He nervously scratched the back of his head, his bed was bigger than a single bed, but it was still hard and small and he would not be able to sleep with the knowledge that his crush was lying right beside him.

Keith's silence as he looked pensively at the room didn't help.

"I... Well, I don't mind, but I really don't want to impose, if it's uncomfortable for you I can sleep on the floor..." Keith looked ashamed, a small blush on his face as he stared intensely at the bed.

Lance squeaked loudly. "You what!? No. Nonono I'm a good host and you're sleeping on the bed, that's final!" He pointed at Keith with his finger threateningly, giving him the stink eye as he just limited to nod very slowly.

"Great! Now leave your stuff and sit wherever you want, I'll go prepare the bath and the dinner."

* * *

After that, Lance a quick work of connecting the gas tank to his little kitchen, grabbing some water from the bathroom and heating it over a flame, proceeding to quickly get to work on dinner.

Sadly, he had very little himself, as the four packets of white rice stared at him from his shelf, but the emptiness on the rest of the kitchen made him groan.

This is in part why he hated the fact he couldn't take leftover rations from their runs back home with them, his pantry was always awfully clean after coming back from them, and that stupid rice was always like a curse, waiting for him back home, always being the last thing he runs out of and filling his pantry but being unable to fill him and nourish him on its own and it got to the point he got an awful distaste for rice, which only got worse whenever he was left with nothing but _it_.

He refused to feed his crush the awful taste of defeat on his first night staying on Lance's house; he wanted to show off some of his cooking skills damn it!

Thankfully, his mom passed from time to time wherever he was home or not, and this time he was thankful at the sight of three plantains on top of a counter with a little note from her.

And thank to the gods, he also had some bunny left from yesterday on his own luggage, going unnoticed inside it. That or they just ignored that small _‘contraband’_ in favor of the huge loot inside their truck, thank god.

Thankfully they'll get paid tomorrow a whole for their findings and he'll be able to make supper, but for now this will have to do.

He proceeded to cook, and with nothing else better to do, he got a wood box out into the kitchen and let Keith sit on it, making small talk as he cooked. He refused any help, since it was just a small dinner, but as soon as he saw the water heated, he grabbed a half-full bucket and mixed the cold water in it with the hot water, and proceeded to take some more water to heat on.

"Alright, your bath's ready dude!" He told Keith, turning towards his bedroom and taking a towel out, directing him inside the bathroom.

"Here you have the shampoo, and the soap, here you have the hot water and the little pot, you can use my phone's lamp if you need some light andd--" He took his phone out and turned in the lamp function, turning around and trying to remember all the things a human being needs before taking a bath. "Wait, do you have your toothbrush? Deodorant? Some pajamas to sleep in?"

Keith straightened up under his gaze, trying to catch up to Lance's high energy.

"Uh-- I do have a toothbrush, but I don't own... Pajamas, I normally sleep in my normal clothes." Keith shrugged off with a frown.

"You what!?" Lance squeaked. "You know what--? Wait here." Lance frowned and walked back to his room, looking through his clothes before grabbing some basketball shorts and a sleeveless shit before coming out, grabbing a pair of slippers that were randomly thrown on the floor on his way out.

"Here!" Lance put the clothes on top of the toilet, where he had left the towel and his phone, still lighting up the small bathroom. "Alright, just don't dump my phone into the water and we'll be alright. You can ask me for anything else if you need it, I'll be right outside ok?" Lance smiled at Keith before he left the little bathroom, closing the door behind him and going back to his cooking.

Unsurprisingly it didn't take a long time for Keith to come out, hair wet over his eyes and a clean shine to his skin. Lance teased him about looking like a wet dog before preparing to take a bath himself, leaving Keith in charge of 'not letting the food burn while Lance washes himself off'.

Lance took a little longer to wash himself, but after he came out he rushed to dress in another pair of shorts and a t-shirt before serving them their dinner, eating eagerly to appease the hunger bothering them since some time ago.

Lance got another box out and they both sat on the kitchen, their plates on their hands and even though Lance lamented not having space enough for a table, Keith brushed his worries away, as he was used to it.

Lance sat and enjoyed the view as they dug in, he must admit he chose that sleeveless shirt for Keith on purpose and now he wondered wherever it was a little too much. Now not only did he have a perfect view to Keith's perfectly toned, pale arms but Keith was also wearing Lance's clothes, sitting on the darkness of his kitchen and being illuminated by the firelight from Lance's oil lamp, looking beautiful and soft as he ate his food and enjoyed it with shiny, yet tired eyes, making Lance's heart go a mile per hour with every look.

Keith got weirdly invested in the fried plantains he made, it being the first time he ate them but enjoying them either way and eagerly asking Lance to teach him the next time he made them, but there was nothing to teach to be honest, you just... Sliced them and fried them, there was no science to it.

But Keith insisted and Lance gave it up, agreeing to show him next time. Keith was so cute, damn it. He was sure his enjoyment came mostly from hunger though, being hungry made anything taste delicious after all, but he'll ignore it in favor of stroking his ego.

Afterwards, Keith helped him clean up the dirty plates and stores everything else in the refrigerator. Lance felt like dead on his feet after a bath and dinner, and didn't have a doubt that Keith did too, so he promptly walked them to his room, closing the door behind them and taking out another blanket for Keith to sleep with.

He let him sleep on the side of the wall, asking him once again if he was comfortable and if he didn't need anything else before lying in bed beside him, as far away as he could for the sake of his poor heart.

He took out his tablet, asking Keith if it wouldn't bother him if he saw the news in it before going to sleep and Keith shrugged it off, facing the wall and curling in on himself.

Lance simply turned towards his tablet and scrolled through the news feed for a little while, eyelids going heavier and heavier with every time he blinked. Thankfully he hadn't missed much, and all the bigger 'surprising' news weren't even that surprising. He couldn't help looking at Keith from time to time though, as if trying to reassure he really was there, sleeping on his bed.

He didn't even notice when he fell asleep.

* * *

* * *

Keith stared at him for what seemed like a lifetime, chest going up and down in soft, slow motions with every breath he took, and the way his eyelashes moved from time to time with his dreams; the tablet long time forgotten, laying face-down on his chest since he fell asleep.

He swears he can feel Lance's body heat right beside him, seeping through the bed and heating up his blankets and warming his bones.

Even through the darkness, he swears he could count his eyelashes, and the little scars and freckles on his face.

Keith had turned around a while ago, finding it hard to sleep in the new environment, or maybe it was hard to sleep all-together with the anxiety of having the answers to his questions at the tip of his fingers, and when he heard Lance's little snoring sounds beside him, he turned around to bemoan him about it.

He's been staring since then, curled up under his blanket, and for some reason his arms and legs felt too heavy to move.

He noticed Lance's shoulder, right beside his head, wondering when exactly had he moved so close, the warmth coming from Lance's arm already licking at his own fingertips.

He wondered for a moment if he should lay his head against Lance's shoulder, how it would feel, but promptly brushed the idea away, he had already decided he didn't have the time for such feelings, frustrated at the little adverse he felt at imagining himself cuddling against Lance.

...

He didn't even notice when he fell asleep, forehead touching Lance's shoulder. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I must admit, that the scenes with Pidge and the hospital ran out of my control but i'm happy how it ended up bringing them all closer, and also that a great deal of scenes and facts during this chapter were from personal experience *sigh* I still remember all that trouble I went through during Venezuela's big bad blackout back in April last year, and funny enough, today there's another HUGE blackout through the country today! (the zone where i live just wasn't affected)  
> ANYWAYS, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I can't wait to read you guys comments they make me happy even if they're few!  
> also a heads up: next week's chapter might come out really late, since i'm working on another smutty one-shot with Lamia Lance and Dragon Keith that i WANT to have ready for the 14th (which doesn't mean I WILL but shhh) without mentioning I still have to figure out a lot of things that are gonna happen next chapter, it's one of those times where you KNOW whats going to happen AFTER it, and you know, fuzzily, whats going to happen ON it, but the details? about how its all gonna go?? nope! but I'll do my best!!! wish me luck!!

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I want to make Keith and Lance a pinning mess who keep flirting and snuggling together but being oblivious and shy about it if you hadn't noticed. They're just very gay and a dissaster.
> 
> Anyways, if there is anything you need to know or anything you want to share, don't be afraid to comment! i'll be happy with just anything, and feedback is always appreciated!


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